Veterans waiting over a year for surgeries

Veterans waiting over a year for surgeries

08:19 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 7, 2009

By JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV
DALLAS – When the statue of Saddam Hussein fell in downtown Baghdad on April 9, 2003, Steven Farmer - a Marine corporal - stood a few feet away.

"My unit actually took the hand of it," he remembered. "We spent all night chopping it up and distributing it out to our Marines."

He still has a rectangular piece from the statue of the deposed dictator.

But, Farmer brought back something else - Planters Fasciitis, which bring severe pain in his heel. He got it from wearing and running in boots.

"I've been using my cane for three to four weeks now," he said.

Having just turned 30, he recently had to resort to a walking cane for his left foot.

"It makes me feel really, really old," Farmer said.

Managing a retail store, Farmer gets around the best he can.

Dallas' Veterans Affairs Hospital promised to perform surgery, but the doctors admitted that there was a wait of one year to 18 months, he said.

"When they asked me to go to Iraq, I didn't ask them to hold on,” Farmer said. "I packed up, said goodbye to my family and friends and I was off serving my country. Now, it's time for me to get help with my problem so I can go on and live my life and they're telling me to hold on."

Farmer's not alone.

News 8 discovered dozens, perhaps hundreds, of veterans are lined up for non-emergency surgery.
go here for more
Veterans waiting over a year for surgeries
linked from
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx