Sick Redmond veteran says he's getting run-around
Jan 24, 2008 10:35 PM EST
VA denies 'red-flagging' means care is denied
By Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COM
A Redmond veteran says he was refused medical treatment at the Bend VA Clinic, red-flagged and now can't get the treatment he needs for advanced cancer.
Now he's pleading with officials to fix the system, while they say he was a disturbance.
Pill bottles in the dozens line the bedside 52-year-old Jeffery Severns sleeps in in his Redmond living room.
The veteran was a combat nurse all over the world and served in Operation Desert Storm.
But cancer has spread into his shoulder, tailbone, spine, ribs and gall bladder.
Last spring, it was his throat that hurt him the most, so he went to the VA Clinic in Bend without an appointment and begged to be seen, but it didn't happen.
"Since [my vocal cords] were paralyzed, there was too much air going in and out," Severns explained Thursday. "I couldn't speak, so I would have to take in huge amounts of air to take in a few words. So they thought I was weird. They thought because I was anxious, because I thought I was going to die, they thought I was a threat."
Severns says he was red-flagged, a process the Department of Veterans Affairs uses when someone is disruptive, threatening or violent.
He says the Bend clinic refused him service, so he got a ride to Portland's VA Medical Center. He says doctors there were ready to help - until they looked at his file and saw the red flag.
He says he was escorted right out of the building and continues to be banned from the Bend office.
It wasn't until a private doctor at a Washington hospital scanned him and found what was wrong. He had a tumor the size of his heart, wrapped around his aorta.
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http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=7771848
Speechless, simply speechless.
Vet of Bosnia and Gulf campaigns in the 1990s enforcing no fly zones. I am currently red flagged! My old primary care MD put in my medical record he refuses to see me and after driving 400 miles round trip to find a VA Dr that would see me for complications to diabetes I was met with armed police officers and insulted by a foreign Dr to the point I gave up and walked out.
ReplyDeleteMy reason for red flag status is I accused staff of violating HIPPA once then in a different visit I yelled at a nurse who came in late for work and took two Vets including myself in an appointment at the same time, to cover up her lateness and get back on schedule. I refused to talk about my medical history in front of this guy I didn't know and when she started talking about it I got pissed.
Since I was redflagged have been diagnosed with PTSD from service and several non service related illness including COPD, kidney issues, and the diabetes goes untreated due to not being able to find a job and lack of health insurance.
I can't use the VA because I can't have a jack booted thug standing over me with a weapon while I get seen. They are using intimidation to refuse me services! Don't say call a patiant advocate either cause I have and this is standard at the VA.
A couple of things other than this is not the way a veteran should be treated, is maybe you should contact the media. To tell you the truth, when you get them to care enough to report on what has happened to you, they end up getting enough public outrage that the VA has to either answer for it or fix it.
ReplyDeleteIt has happened in a long list of issues veterans have faced for a very long time. I track these reports across the country and I've seen happy endings many times because a local reporter cared.
The other thing I suggest is that you contact your local Disabled American Veterans for help. They do a great job getting claims approved and getting proper care for disabled veterans like you.
Thanks for the advice of the media but it would bring too much shame on my family. A homeless advocate is hepling me file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights for violation of my HIPPA rights.
ReplyDeleteIt is intimidation to have armed police standing over me with their hands on tasers and gun while holstered while I get insulted by overworked MDs that graduated at the bottom of their class. All problems have came because my privacy rights got violated and I said something about it. I missed a C&P exam for the PTSD because I cant do it at gunpoint.
Been out a decade and only tried to use the last 9 months and the abuse I have taken is unreal.
I am glad you are getting help from someone, that's for sure but sorry you had to go through all of this in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI remember the years of suffering when we were trying to get my husband's claim approved. It was six years of torture and wondering how to keep a roof over our heads. Had it not been for my Mom helping us out, we would have ended up homeless too.
To this day I still wonder how it is that some people end up getting everything right away but others never seem to get what they should have. I read these stories everyday. One veteran in one state gets help, but veterans in other states don't. One veteran is taken to the hospital after police have to show up but another in another state is shot and killed and yet another is charged when all he did was call for help.