Columbus Dispatch
By Nathan Baca and Jodi Andes
WBNS-10TV
Sunday February 22, 2015 After a blood clot forced the amputation of his left leg in 2012, retired Navy Cmdr. Robert Haas was counting on the prosthetics lab at Columbus’ Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Center to help him regain his mobility.
Sadly, he says, his trust was misplaced.
Despite multiple attempts, the prosthetist assigned to care for Haas at the East Side facility proved unable to fit the 30-year veteran with an artificial leg that would enable him to walk — or even stand — without excruciating pain.
Haas’ months-long ordeal — coupled with similar accounts from more than a dozen other central Ohio amputees — triggered a review by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general. The findings have yet to be released.
It also brought to light a VA hiring practice that potentially exposes patients to unlicensed prosthetists who would be barred from working in civilian health care — at least in Ohio, which imposed minimum training requirements more than a decade ago.
Among those alarmed by the situation is U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, a colonel in the Ohio Army National Guard.
“It is troubling to me to know that federal law doesn’t protect our veterans at the same level that the civilian population is protected,” Stivers said.
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