BanderasNews
Puerto Vallarta Weather Report
Welcome to Puerto Vallarta's liveliest website!
Contact UsSearch
Why Vallarta?Vallarta WeddingsRestaurantsWeatherPhoto GalleriesToday's EventsMaps
 NEWS/HOME
 EDITORIALS
 ENTERTAINMENT
 VALLARTA LIVING
 WHY VALLARTA?
 LOCAL PROFILES
 VALLARTA ART TALK
 COMMUNITY SERVICES
 HOME & REAL ESTATE
 RESORT LIFESTYLES
 VALLARTA WEDDINGS
 SHOP UNTIL YOU DROP
 PHOTO GALLERIES
 101 HOTTEST THINGS
 PV REAL ESTATE
 TRAVEL / OUTDOORS
 HEALTH / BEAUTY
 SPORTS
 DAZED & CONFUSED
 PHOTOGRAPHY
 CLASSIFIEDS
 READERS CORNER
 BANDERAS NEWS TEAM
Sign up NOW!

Free Newsletter!
Puerto Vallarta News NetworkVallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | February 2007 

Spin It! by the V.A. Press Service
email this pageprint this pageemail usDavid Lord - PVNN


Marine veteran Jonathan Schulze of New Prague Mn. hanged himself after he was turned away from two VA hospitals because their psychiatric units were full.
Washington, D.C. - The bill that funds the government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs for the remainder of the fiscal year, provides $32.3 billion for veterans' health care, an increase of $3.6 billion over FY 2006 levels.

David's de-Spin: from Oct. 2006 the V.A. has had no budget, that is one third of the fiscal year, making it very hard to keep pace with those veterans returning from Iraq and needing medical treatment.

The 250,000 men and women who have returned to America from Iraq not only have serious medical problems, the loss of income and ability to work has been equally frustrating. They are behind their non-serving peers in all aspects of quality of life for the rest of their lives. I know, it is the same old spin...

V.A. says that approximately 55% of claims are completed in 180 day or less. David's de-spin says this is just not true. Further more there are 870,000 claims that are waiting in line.

The crisis within the V.A. is in the adjudication of claims, a very sensitive area, and I will continue to point this out as a true failure in veterans care. I have never viewed the V.A. for what it is to most citizens, (a health provider and caregiver for veterans.) In fact they are robbing the veterans time, taking it away by slowing the decision process.

Ask yourself why a defendant in criminal trail has more rights to legal counsel, due process and a fair impartial jury than U.S. Veterans seeking compensation for wounds of war? The V.A. is controlling all aspects of the claims process.

We veterans must face a so called non-adversarial legal system that has its adjudicators acting as prosecutors would act in a jury trail. The V.A. has laws in place to stop you from defending or presenting your claim if you do not provide a rebuttal in as little as sixty days. The fact that we have a system that can act as if 870,000 pending claims waiting in line is fine is only because they have no concept of the real price we pay.

Mental wounds are a given of any war, which is why Americans should be absolutely sure war is necessary before they ever agree to put the lives of U.S. troops on the line. The extreme anguish that can come from killing others, risking death and seeing friends die is a wound that relentlessly keeps on wounding.

When you compound the ordinary mental risks of any war with the confusion of purpose, repeat deployments and guerrilla nature of the war in Iraq, you have a situation guaranteed to twist the emotions of many soldiers in ways so painful and hopeless that some choose death instead, the choice made by Marine veteran Jonathan Schulze of New Prague, Mn. who recently hanged himself.

Knowing with certainty what happened with Schulze is impossible, given the privacy restrictions on the Department of Veterans Affairs and a bureaucracy's instinctive desire to cover its backside. Perhaps he did not clearly mention the magical words "feeling suicidal." But no one disputes this much: Schulze took his life after he was turned away from two VA hospitals - in Minneapolis and St. Cloud - because their psychiatric units were full.

Imagine what this means. A Marine, trained to suck it up and be manly in his own eyes and those of his peers, finally is in such overwhelming pain that he can admit to himself and, most difficult, to others, that he needs psychiatric help. (The veterans from the Viet Nam war know that more than 58,000 were killed in combat, but actually over 109,000 deaths were in Viet Nam from all causes during the war. What many do not know is that more Viet Nam veterans have taken their lives since that war ended in 1975 than died in combat.)

Schulze, having made that extraordinarily difficult decision, is told to come back in a few months when the hospital has an opening. That is akin to telling a heart attack victim to check back when the emergency room doctor is not busy or a drowning person to wait until a life preserver is available. In military and VA hospitals, there should be no waiting list for psychiatric beds. The very idea is obscene.

(Source for this Veterans death came from an article in Minneapolis Tribune.)
David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at mophmx@@yahoo.com or david.lord@yahoo.com.

Click HERE for more Veteran Affairs with David Lord »»»



In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research and educational purposes • m3 © 2008 BanderasNews ® all rights reserved • carpe aestus