Veteran with cancer cannot get treatment from VA because of state borders and COVID-19

Veteran and family plead for hospitals to treat his stage 4 cancer

KALB News
By JOJUANA PHILLIPS
Apr 10, 2020

"I was informed that my father had no scheduled appointment. Even all of the CT scans, his chemo, everything had been canceled, but no one had contacted us," said Barron who's been trying to contact the VA Hospital in Shreveport to see if her father's treatments could be moved to that location.

BENTLEY, La. (KALB)- 64-year-old Byron Walters has been to Vietnam and back, serving his country in the United States Army.

He's currently battling the COVID-19 pandemic with the rest of Louisiana on top of stage 4 cancer.

"I have prostate cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer and liver cancer," said Walters as he explained that he's due for his fourth round of chemotherapy.

The VA Hospital in Houston, Texas has been treating him since he found out about his cancer and that's where he was scheduled to travel for his next appointment this month. He's been told that his treatments should be done no more than 3 weeks apart.
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Dying Homeless Veteran Gets Back Lost Dog

Nonprofit Reunites Homeless, Dying Veteran With Service Dog in Long Beach
Harry Brown had given up hope of finding Olivia when an animal rescue group spotted his lost dog ad.
NBC Los Angeles
By Hetty Chang and Olivia Niland
August 13, 2015

For 53-year-old Harry Brown, a homeless veteran with terminal pancreatic cancer, life has dealt some difficult blows. But a trip to Long Beach to say goodbye to family and friends proved especially devastating when his beloved service dog, Olivia, wandered away while he napped in a park 10 days ago.

As soon as he realized she was gone, Brown began searching for Olivia high and low, and even walked from Long Beach to Orange County to search animal shelters after being told the city didn’t have one of its own.
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Cancer stricken Marine faces eviction because people care too much?

Robert Lorentz risked his life in Iraq. He lived on the streets. The only people he had in his life were other homeless veterans. He found a place to live the last of his days suffering from cancer. Again, it was his "street family" coming to take care of him. Now a heartless landlord can't wait until the dies to get rid of his caregivers?

Cancer-stricken Iraq war veteran faces eviction over 'street family'
Published June 10, 2013
FoxNews.com

A former Marine whose doctor reportedly says he only has four months to live in a fight against bone cancer is now taking on another challenger: his landlord, who is looking to evict him from his Arizona apartment.

Robert Lorentz, a 37-year-old Iraq war veteran, was homeless until last year, when he moved into an apartment complex in Phoenix, AZCentral.com reports.

A variety of people visit Lorentz’s apartment each day. He calls them his “street family,” as they cook him meals and help him change his clothes and use the bathroom.

But apartment owner Emanuel Dobos believes the caregivers are squatters, saying they have trashed the apartment complex and are causing disturbances for other residents, AZCentral.com reports.
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Veteran committed suicide at VA Hospital

I received this from a friend on Facebook about a suicide at a veterans' hospital. I have not been able to find a news report on this yet, but will post it as soon as I find one.

If you have someone to hug please do so today. I was at the VA hospital a man who had to have chemotherapry was sitting outside by the smoking area he took a pistol and shot himself in the head in front of everyone. There is only so much a person can take I have been at the hospital since 9:30am until now. Life is a precious give so just hug somone today. Then think about somone other than yourself tomorrow

Other shootings

UPDATE: Shooting at McGuire VA Hospital (NOON) The suspect in a shooting on the grounds of McGuire VA Medical Center is behind bars, the victim is fighting for his life.
2010

War Veteran Jesse Huff Commits suicide outside VA Hospital
Jesse C. Huff, was 27 years old had been in VA emergency room earlier in the morning.

2011

Fort Wayne Veteran witnessed suicide at VA hospital
Witness saw man shoot self in head
Veteran witness: I knew exactly what the sound was

Police report says veteran used pistol in his clothing bag to fatally wound himself
Published: Saturday, October 15, 2011
By Dominique Fong, The Oregonian


A 67-year-old veteran used a pistol in his clothing bag to shoot and kill himself Thursday while he was a patient at the Portland VA Medical Center, according to a Portland police report.

On Thursday, nursing staff alerted the hospital’s security officers that the man had shot himself in a first-floor room. Portland police then arrived.

Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus

Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus

By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff

An ailing Grindstone man and former U.S. Marine fatally shot by law enforcement officers near a veterans hospital Thursday was remembered by friends Friday as a generous, considerate man who struggled heroically to overcome a rare form of cancer and believed strongly in his right to carry a gun.

An autopsy of James F. Popkowski, 37, on Friday determined that he died from a gunshot wound to the neck and was killed in a homicide. The term denotes that he was killed by someone else, not that his death was necessarily caused by or came during a crime, a medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.

“I wished I could write that this was all a bad dream. … I can’t, so I instead will pray for the [lieutenant’s] family. Bing was a great boy and greater man. … He grew up with my boys and he never was nothing but a great kid,” wrote Galen Hale, a friend of Popkowski’s, on a Facebook page dedicated to Popkowski.

The Maine State Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether the two officers believed to have fired their weapons, VA police Officer Thomas Park and Maine Warden Service Sgt. Ron Dunham, were justified in using deadly force.

The investigation likely will take 60 to 90 days.
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Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus


also

Togus a city within a city
Thursday’s fatal shooting, first ever for police there, shines light on public safety
By Craig Crosby

AUGUSTA -- With thousands of people coming and going and dozens of buildings spread over hundreds of acres, all on federal land, the Togus Veterans Affairs hospital complex can accurately be described as a small city within the capital city.

And like any city, the facility comes replete with its own emergency services.

"A lot of people are surprised we're here," said Joe Stangel, a captain and emergency medical technician for the Togus Fire Department.

The Togus Police Department was cast into the public eye this week when one of its officers, along with a warden from the Maine Warden Service, reportedly shot and killed an armed Marine Corps veteran during a confrontation at the edge of the woods near Togus' Eastern Avenue entrance.

It was the first shooting involving a Togus police officer in the department's history.
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Togus a city within a city

5 Tour Iraq Veteran faces unemployment and cancer

Soldier faces most frightening fight of his life

by JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV

Posted on March 7, 2010 at 10:00 PM

Updated today at 2:14 PM

******

CARROLLTON - Sgt. Andrew Hampton parachuted into Panama in 1989 and survived five tours in Iraq but there's little the U.S. Army can do to prepare him for his next fight.

"I just want to see my son grow up," he struggled to say, while fighting back tears.

Last week, doctors at the Dallas VA Hospital diagnosed him with gastric cancer. It's Stage 2, they told him, in the back of his stomach.

"Before this cancer, I was doing well," the 43-year-old reserve soldier said.

Facing the unknown now is unnerving. For Sgt. Hampton, a modest man, asking for help is almost humiliating.

"I...," he paused and looked away, "I cannot repay anybody right now."

After serving as a military policeman up until 2008, Sgt. Hampton returned to Iraq as a security contractor, after he was unable to find a job in North Texas. But he collapsed there in January.

He was placed on an emergency medical flight back to North Texas and now doctors here won't let him return.

As if the medical problems he faces aren't worrisome enough, bill collectors haven't been very forgiving.

"The way I'm going to pay the bills is through prayer," the single father said. "That's all I can do."

Sgt. Hampton is awaiting unemployment benefits.
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Soldier faces most frightening fight of his life

Mercy flight for cancer patient ends in flames on Easton plaza

Mercy flight for cancer patient ends in flames on Easton plaza
Plane crashes in lot; all 3 aboard killed
August 13, 2008
Written and reported by David Abel, Tania deLuzuriaga, Emily Sweeney, Andrew Ryan, and Michael Levenson of the Globe staff, and Globe correspondent John M. Guilfoil.

EASTON - A volunteer pilot flying a Long Island cancer patient and his wife on a mercy mission to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston nose-dived through low cloud cover into the empty back row of a supermarket parking lot yesterday morning. All three aboard the plane died in the crash.

Authorities said the four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza seemed to fluctuate dangerously in altitude before disappearing off radar, and witnesses reported that it stalled and spun out before crashing near the Hannaford's store in Highlands Plaza on Robert Drive in this town south of Boston.

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