MEDICAL CARE FOR VETERANS? FUHGEDABOUDIT

Log of actions taken:

12/15 Got a call from the VA Hospital in WLA. They will see me on Monday. I don't know if my kicking and screaming will help the rest of you.
12/11/: Made formal complaint through Senator Boxer; still no response from VA
12/8; Am on very limited excercise. Still out of breath after short walk. Have been told to cool it with the walking. VA still won't see me unless I agree to climb the hill and stairs. Can't do it. Without other care I'd be a dead man.
12/1; wrote below letter and sent to head of Congressional Committee and VA.
12/2; sent letter to media; sent by email and FAX to Congressional Members of Veterans Committee
12/3; Sent web page by email to all VA offices. Got one reply, that from VA in DC. They told me to contact Patient Representative. I called just before noon and a recording told me that office hours were between 8 and 5, to leave a message and my call would be returned. Call was never returned.
12/4: Received an email from the Office of Inspector General at VA. Informed that they had "opened my case" and that I had no appeal whatsoever on any decision they may make. Still NO MEDICAL CARE. Anybody know a lawyer?
12/5: Thursday I sent web posting to 20 reporters at LAT. None responded. I went to my private doctor, had to have coumadin level changed. Called my psych at the VA who is in the same building. He told me NOT to climb the stairs and adjusted my meds over the phone. Keep in mind not ONE congressman has contacted me either, nor has the "Patient Representative returned my calls.

The VA Hospital in West Los Angeles; a place where unlicensed CLERKS with golf handicap IQs practice medicine and doctors don't bother to call.
What follows is a copy of a letter I sent to Congressional Committe members, the VA both in West Los Angeles and D.C., a Senator, and the Los Angeles Times. Keep in mind that I STILL haven't heard from ANYONE and had I not had alternate coverage I'd be on the street with no medical care. If you are in Iraq or Afghanistan thinking about re-upping and that you will have lifetime medical coverage, check this out. The coverage totally sucks and this is how you will be treated too. It ain't just happening to me.

I have been under VA care at the West Los Angels Hospital for 15 years. I had a heart attack on Monday 11/24/03 at 4AM. I called 911 and was transported to the nearest hospital which was Cedars Sinai. Diagnosed as a Kawasaki related attack, placed in ICU for two days, and hospital for five more where I was on Halparin, coumadin, and Plavix. Released on 11/30. I am prescribed coumadin and Plavix. I was told to contact the WLA VA Hospital for some follow up, advised to do limited walking for three days and get blood work done. I am also covered by Medicare A&B.

I called the VA upon discharge this AM and was told nobody could help me; that I would have to call my Primary Care Provider, a Mr. DeJesus at ext. 49162. I told the lady I wanted to talk to a real doctor and my real doctor at that number is Dr. Baum. I was told I had to talk to the UNLICENCED TO PRACTICE MEDICINE clerk. Mr. DeJesus, in keeping with his unlicenced status, refused to transfer me to a cardiologist. He told me I had to drive over there to Bldg. 205 (it sits on a hill 100 feet above the street), climb the steep hill in front, and then climb up a steep flight of stairs and he'd see me IF he wasn't busy. I can't climb the hill and stairs at this point because I am short of breath. I then called the business and they were rude, told me I had to go to Building 205 and the fact that I'd just had a heart attack "was the way we do things no matter what". Again from an UNLICENCED clerk.

I then called Cardiology Clinic. Another UNLICENCED CLERK told me nobody would see me until I went to Building 205 and did the appropriate climbing.

If you think this is medical care you must be working for the government, a government that allows and encourages UNLICENCED people to practice medicine. No real doctor who knew I'd just had a heart attack would ever instruct me to climb a hill and then a steep flight of stairs. I assume that CLERK, Mr. DeJesus, will cause a law suit one day and I will do my best to see that I am that cause.

I am still waiting for a call from somebody. I am glad I have Medicare and a real doctor in the private sector will see me this afternoon. A REAL doctor with a degree and everything; his CLERKS do paperwork and answer the phone. They do not give medical opinions.

So if you are a Veteran thinking the VA is there for you, beware. No hospital, doctors office, or even country clinic would treat somebody who had just had a heart attack like this. Only the Federal Government with their army of union employees, many with golf handicap IQs, would dare to treat people like this.
LATE ADD, 3PM TUES Still no way to get to the VA. I am on coumadin, a drug that needs constant monitoring or you can die. Private doctor ran test yesterday and will run another on Thursday. Just so you veterans get it: a fucking bunch of clerks put my life at risk. I could have died yesterday due to a coumadin imbalance. The same thing can, and will, happen to you. And nobody cares.