Sunday, September 20, 2009

Michigan Mobile Legal Clinic for Veterans

Mobile Legal Clinic to Help Veterans
Rina Miller (2009-09-20)

ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - A traveling legal clinic for veterans is coming to Southeast Michigan.

Project Salute is a mobile law office.

It's staffed by attorneys and law students who volunteer their time to help low-income veterans with their disability and pension benefits claims.

Bob Walsh is a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He says the federal system has a backlog of about a million cases.

Walsh says there are still many World War Two, Korean and Vietnam War veterans trying to get their benefits.

"There simply isn't any excuse. There's no excuse for not cleaning up this mess and taking care of these men and women," Walsh says.

Project Salute will visit Wayne on Wednesday, Sept. 23, Highland Park on Saturday, Sept. 26, and Detroit on September 28.

Veterans or their families are encouraged to come in person, but the clinic also offers phone interviews."

VAOIG Finds, Hampton-VA Medical Center Ignored Vet's Stroke

Full Article: VA hospital ignored vet's stroke, report finds


What happened
John Morgan, a Marine veteran, went to the Hampton VA Medical Center in November with symptoms of a stroke. He was sent home without a CAT scan or seeing a neurologist, a report found. The next day, Morgan went to a Norfolk hospital, where he was found to have suffered a stroke. It left him permanently disabled.


By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© September 20, 2009

"The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has found the Hampton VA Medical Center at fault after a doctor there failed to diagnose a Chesapeake veteran's stroke, leaving him permanently disabled.

The investigation also found that the vet's medical record contained lab results from another patient and that the medical center staff turned a deaf ear to his repeated complaints in the weeks afterward."

Army Cost Reduction, Give Bad Discharge to PTSD Vets

Revelations like this reinforce the reasons why veterans need legal representation at every stage of interaction with the military and VA.

Sep-19-2009 17:50
Full Article: Army Gives Bad Discharges to Thousands of PTSD Vets
Gordon Duff Salem-News.com

(CINNCINATTI, Ohio) - "It all began as a Bush era program, promoted by Dr. Sally Satel, the famed "PTSD denialist" putting thousands of soldiers at risk and pushing hundreds to suicide.

Thousands of veterans lost all benefits, GI Bill, medical care and more through Army discharge scam, part of Neo-con "cost saving program"

How did it work? Simple. A very large percentage of combat vets with PTSD are problem drinkers, self medicating in the only way they can and, in the process, getting worse and worse. Redeployments of soldiers needing treatment only adds to the problem.

When vets with severe PTSD demonstrate severe symptoms, including alcohol abuse, they are put in short and unproven "quit" programs with an extremely high failure rate. This is all part of a game, one invented to trap soldiers and cut costs.

Step 2 in the game, the Army "orders" the soldier not to drink, knowing the order itself is absurd. Real treatment for PTSD is denied. When the soldier drinks, and they always do, the soldier is arrested, jailed and charged, now get this, with disobeying a direct order, Article 34 and disrespect to an officer or non-com.

Sometimes even more charges are piled on. In the end, the deal is the same. Leave the army with nothing but years of honorable service now labeled as "dishonorable" or "bad conduct" and face civilian life crushed and abandoned by the country you risked your life to serve.

The Army learned the game from the VA. The VA denied PTSD diagnoses to Vietnam veterans used alcohol, claiming they couldn't be diagnosed. Problem is, almost all PTSD vets use alcohol or drugs as self medication. End result, tens of thousands of Vietnam vets were denied diagnosis, treatment and compensation for decades with thousand dying as a result.

The basis of the Army policy is the Dr. Sally Satel "theory" that PTSD does not exist and all vets are fakers. Her beliefs, fringe "neo-con medicine" comes from a theory that soldiers and veterans are part of a non-productive social class that taxes a nations economic health as soon as they leave a combat zone. The end analysis supports the supposition that a disabled veteran and an illegal alien on welfare contribute exactly the same to the overall welfare of society."

Philly-VA Nursing Home Report Documents Wrong Medications, Maggots, Filth

Full Article: Report: Philly VA Nursing Home Patients Lived in Filth, Inspector saw nurse using wrong medication on patient
Updated 5:46 PM EDT, Sat, Sep 19, 2009

Report on Philadelphia Veterans Affairs, obtained under a FOIA request by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, finds that: “There was a significant failure to promote and protect their residents' rights to autonomy and to be treated with respect and dignity,".

"Inspectors found dried blood and feeding tubes on the floors, and one patient's leg had to be amputated after maggots were seen falling from his foot".

"The report by the Wisconsin-based Long Term Care Institute concluded that the facility, the bed count of which has been cut from 240 to 120, “failed to provide a sanitary and safe environment for their residents.” It cites substandard treatment of wound care and “multiple concerns regarding nursing competencies.”"