Reminder of the Walter Reed story that broke hearts around the country

And This Was Called Care? The Walter Reed Story
New York Times
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: September 30, 2013

As this week’s Retro Report video explains, the biggest scandal in recent times involving the care of wounded American troops was actually worsened because medicine on the battlefront had made such remarkable advances.

Compared with service members who served in Vietnam, troops sustaining combat wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan had roughly twice the chance of surviving. That meant many were airlifted back to this country with such severe injuries they needed the most sophisticated medical and rehabilitative care the country had to offer.

But once they became outpatients, thousands of service members entered a system that had not kept up with the times, that was understaffed, poorly organized and generally second rate.

The story broke in The Washington Post in the winter of 2007, with a series about Walter Reed Army Medical Center. While the most obvious shortcomings were the physical conditions of the hospital housing for the soldiers — peeling paint, crumbling walls, mold and rats — the more damning problem was an understaffed medical system overseen by a dysfunctional bureaucracy.
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