Rep. Dan Boren: Helped soldier being deployed after tornado

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 9:32 AM CDT
Veterans Meeting Slated

By Wanda Freeman

TIMES RECORD • WFREEMAN@SWTIMES.COM

A veterans advisory meeting open to U.S. military veterans in LeFlore, Latimer, Haskell and surrounding counties is scheduled Thursday in Poteau, with Oklahoma’s 2nd District congressman as one of the hosts and speakers.

The meeting will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bob Lee Kidd Civic Center. From 10 a.m. to noon, veterans administrative personnel and case workers from Muskogee and Tulsa will be available to meet veterans and discuss their individual needs privately.

During a free lunch period, U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, will update attendees on current veterans legislation.

Boren, who has a veterans advisory panel that meets quarterly in Washington, said the Poteau event is a bipartisan meeting focused on area veterans and their needs. His office is working with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., as well as the U.S. and Oklahoma departments of veterans affairs, the U.S. National Cemetery at Fort Gibson and AES Shady Point.

In a telephone interview last week, Boren said the advisory meetings don’t focus exclusively on medical benefits.

“All sorts of issues come up,” he said. “Someone feels like they’re not getting the exact benefits they deserve ... or sometimes people didn’t get their medals that they earned all the way back in World War II ... or a family has someone serving in Iraq and they want to send them things or feel they’re not being treated right. Last week, we had someone who lost his home in the tornado in Picher, and he was being deployed two days later to Afghanistan, so we were asked to help give him some extra time to help his family.”
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Women Veterans lacking care at Muskogee VA

The emails I get are kept private unless the sender whats it posted.


The following was left as a comment on my blog post about women veterans. It is important that ALL veterans are taken care of. To have Muskogee VA sending women away because there is not a female nurse on duty at the time it a disgrace! How many women is this happening to? There is no excuse for a VA hospital or even a clinic to turn any veteran away!

"The primary mission of the Center for Women Veterans is to review VA programs and services for women veterans, and assure that women veterans receive benefits and services on a par with male veterans, encounter no discrimination in their attempt to access them, and are treated with the respect, dignity, and understanding by VA service providers."It's too bad the REAL VA doesn't abide by the above mentioned reference to "accessible care" and women being treated with "respect, dignity and understanding." If this were true, I as a 100% PTSD service connected female veteran, would be receiving the medical care, medicine and psych therapy that I SHOULD have been getting (for the last 20 years).
You see, I live in Oklahoma and in this state, female veterans are treated like we're invisible. I've been hospitalized 10 times and had 6 major surgeries. All done privately after being turned away repeatedly from the VA ER. Yes, turned away!!! Why you ask? I was turned away because the VA's policy here in Oklahoma is that a female nurse MUST be on duty and able to attend to female veterans.The Muskogee VA hospital has always used the excuse that they had NO female nurses "on duty" anytime I was "in medical need.Oh yeah, and I can't help but be reminded as a female veteran with kidney failure, massive internal bleeding, and very near death that my condition was LABELED as NON_URGENT by the Muskogee VA in 2003. Thus I have been forced to seek ALL my care privately, live on credit cards to to high prescription costs, and forced INTO FINANCIAL CRISIS due to a "$50,000" second mortgage incurred to RE-pay medical bills (ALL because the Muskogee VA has CHOSEN to REFUSE treating me. I must not forget to mention that I have suffered the loss of my right kidney, been bedridden and home-bound and have had to receive medical care AS A CHARITY CASE to stay ALIVE.So your comment about fair, respectful, accessible VA medical care for female vets....YEAH RIGHT,only in a perfect world where women are actually valued as HUMANS!!!travelvet@gmail.com(I'd like to reveal my name. But I've been receiving harassment and threats from the VA doctors. Yeah, I've tried to talk to patient advocates (another joke) and even Senators (a bigger joke). Nobody cares!!!

November 19, 2007 3:06 AM
Kathie Costos said...
travelvet, I didn't make the comment, the link did. I think the way all veterans are treated is evil. What keeps getting lost is the fact there are so many female veterans and so little being done for them. Correction, a lot keeps being lost in all of this.There is a push on right now to put Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to the head of the line but instead of taking care of all veterans, the older ones are pushed to the back. My husband was being seen by two doctors every month for PTSD. Now he is seeing them every three months. I'm going to copy your comment and post it so that everyone reads it. I wish I could say that your story is not happening all over the country, but each state has been just as inept as the federal government has been on taking care of all veterans.
November 19, 2007 8:57 AM