OF WALTER REED

This is a story of hope and redemption told here because I can't log on over at Hot Air where there is a long blog comment section about Walter Reed Army Hospital horrors specifically, and VA care in general. Those few of you who have been with me from the beginning know that this blog started simply as a record of my horrible treatment at the hands of the VA in West Los Angeles back in 2003. I concluded the "diary" part this way:

FOR VETERANS ONLY: I am running a daily log about my effort to get the VA to treat me. . My only purpose is to force a change in the way we are treated there. Still refused care as of 12/9. HERE TODAY 12/15 Received a call from the VA and they will begin treating me this week. This came after I wrote at least 100 people in Congress, the VA, and two Senators.
Posted by Howard at 12/15/2003

OK, I'm a wounded vet who was shot in the ass while running out of a cat house in Yokosuka so I'm sponging off the taxpayers and fuck you. Anyway, the first case was settled but I had an even later bad situation over at Mental Health. (yes, I'm fucking nuts. But you all know that, and I take so many meds for it that I have a street value of $1200)) VA mental health care was like 19th century mental health care. Like no care at all. Like maniacs running loose all over the place. Like assistant nurses who were actually guards with no mental health experience and no interest in anything other than calling the cops if a murder happened. So even though I was out of my mind I was able to send an email to Senator McCain's office telling him the problem. A month later the head of psych called me on the phone.

"Why did you do this to us?"
"Do what?"
"There's congressmen running all over the place."

Like magic I got actual therapy which worked like, well therapy; and I was sort of sane in three months. I'd like to say that McCain did magic. He did not. He performed one magic trick. Within a month of the congressional visits and some corrections that they observed, every incompetent was back on their old job and the poor fucking maniacs were once again running around in whatever nightmare possessed them at the time.

However, part of the McCain revolution was the installation of a Dr. Bowman as head of the entire West LA VA Hospital complex. I may have the name wrong but I think I have it right. One day while I was waiting in line along with a hundred other guys sitting on the floor with nobody to treat us, I called the business office and actually spoke with Dr. Bowman. She acknowledged that she was totally responsible for everything in building 206. I told her she should be fired (not knowing she was actually running the fucking place, I thought she was some flunky secretary). Well she was very nice. She let me know exactly who she was and guaranteed me that things would change in Building 206 within 20 minutes. I got a phone call the next morning from one of the clerks in 206 asking me to come back that day and someone would see me. Bowman also gave me her home phone number, her car phone number, and her pager number and told me if I ever had a problem again I should call her.

But an even better part. The WLA VA Hospital was bad. The help didn't help, the nurses didn't nurse, and in some clinics the barely ambulatory patients were sitting in the hall moaning in pain with nobody to help them, or caring to help them. Bowman totally cleaned house. Within a year that facility became quite good. At the end of two years it was dam good. And it all happened because that doctor decided to straighten the place out.

And she straightened out a racial situation that most administrators would have simply dodged because liberal thinking said there was NO racial problem. This was the racial composition at the time; everyone in a position less than Registered Nurse was black. Every female in any position of authority was Pakistani or Indian. Virtually every doctor was white as were virtually all head nurses. The Blacks did everything they could to sabotage the white doctors, and at one point they had demanded that doctors be only called by their first names---that is because calling them "doctor" was racist and demeaning.

I can only assume she fired half the blacks in the place because within six months the racial composition was sort of reflective of the LA population as a whole and the snotty Black help who were the problem were no longer there.

I will bet you that Walter Reed has very poor leadership. There is no Dr. Bowman to take names and kick ass. I have no idea if she is still in the VA system, but if she is, somebody find her. Put her in charge with total authority. Magic will happen. Unless political correctness is more important than patient care, in which case the Walter Reed Hospital will just stay as it is.