VA fails local vet: Soldotna Alaska man languishes due to snafu

VA fails local vet: Soldotna man languishes due to snafu
Kenai Peninsula Online - Kenai,AK,USA
By Phil Hermanek Peninsula Clarion
For more than 20 years, when the U.S. Air Force called, Richard Creary reported for duty.

Now, about 20 years after being honorably discharged, Creary is calling back, and his calls are not heard.

On Jan. 9, Creary suffered a stroke in his Soldotna home and was rushed to the hospital.

When the medical staff at Central Peninsula Hospital learned he was a retired Air Force veteran, they decided to have him flown up to the hospital on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage for further care.

That's where he remains today, a month later, while his significant other is being run around the system trying to get him the rehabilitation therapy everyone agrees he must have, but no one wants to pay.

"They referred him to a short-term facility in Seattle, but they denied his admittance because he did not have an exit plan," said Scharlott Thomas, who has been Creary's partner since around 2001.

The short-term facility is a Veterans Administration facility, and even though Creary has not started a rehabilitation regimen anywhere, Thomas said the facility wants him to have an exit plan -- a specific date when his rehabilitation is to end.
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