Veterans die after being placed on VA Hospital’s secret waiting list

[Forever_frost]

HOUSTON -

George Barraza love two things in this life: playing the electric guitar with all his heart and this country.

During the Vietnam War, Barraza proudly served in the U.S. Army.

But on April 16, Barraza, a father of three girls, a chef and an American veteran, died waiting for an appointment at the VA Medical Center in Houston.
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At the time of his death, Barraza was battling heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. But his problems became much worse in September when he went to the Michael Debakey VA Medical Center in terrible pain and unable to move his hands at all.

"They said, 'Oh, that looks like it hurts, let me give you some pain medication and send you on home,'" said Barraza's daughter, Georgia Barraza who complains the VA staff did not treat her father's problem that day by admitting him and caring for him, but instead gave him pain medication and an appointment to come back.

The very next day, she said Barraza had to be rushed to another hospital outside the VA system to Methodist Hospital Sugar Land, where he was immediately admitted and treated for close to a week.

Over the next several months, family members said Barraza began to decline physically and he did go to the VA for various tests and other help.

But in March family members said Barraza was suddenly rushed to Methodist Hospital again. This time he was vomiting blood and doctors told him he had a tumor or growth on his liver.

Barraza's family said doctors at that hospital told Barraza he had to get to the VA right away, it was very serious and he needed treatment.

But the very next day, when they took him to the VA Hospital, they said again Barraza was not treated or admitted to the hospital. Instead he was given more prescription medicines and given an appointment more than a month away on May 5.

Barraza died April 16.

Local 2 asked Dr. James Scheurich, deputy chief of staff at the VA Medical Center in Houston, why Barraza was not treated.

"It's within the guidelines and we do the best we can, that was the open appointment," said Scheurich. "A lot of our staff are veterans and our whole mission is taking care of veterans, and we do the best we can for every one of them."

http://www.click2houston.com/news/veteran-dies-waiting-for-va-appointment-in-houston-family-says/26110934

[Forever_frost]

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/05/21/va-supervisor-older-veterans-shot-head-save-money/

VA SUPERVISOR: OLDER VETERANS SHOULD BE “SHOT IN THE HEAD” TO SAVE MONEY
Posted on May 21, 2014 by Paul Joseph Watson

A Veterans Affairs whistleblower has exclusively revealed to Infowars that the facility at which he works has engaged in a of cover-up in response to the VA hospital scandal, while also relating the story of how one supervisor expressed his desire to see older veterans “taken outside and shot in the head.”

The whistleblower, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, works at a large 250 acre VA hospital. He lifted the lid on a number of shocking details during an interview with Sgt. Joe Biggs.

“Recently there’s been a very rapid race to move records, boxes, change labels, whatever it may be, they’re putting them in rooms that nobody would look in….and there’s multiple times that I have seen in the past week or so them moving boxes….so apparently they’re hiding their tracks somewhere,” stated the VA employee, adding that the activity preceded an inspection of the facility, suggesting it was part of an effort to conceal evidence in the aftermath of the secret waiting list scandal.

Even more chilling was a warning sent out to VA employees at the facility which, according to the whistleblower, was meant to get across the message, “Do you see what happens to the people that try to get things straight around here, they’re not here anymore,” a tone the whistleblower described as “pretty telling.”

The employee also revealed the shocking attitude of one supervisor at the hospital towards older veterans, who asserted that older vets “should be taken outside and shot in the head because they’re worthless.” The individual still works at the hospital and was not disciplined for his comments.

“How can you stop the corruption and the insanity if you have a supervisor who is a non-veteran saying these things to veterans, scaring them about their jobs and telling them because they’re an older veteran ‘you ought to be taken outside and shot in the head’,” asked the employee.

The whistleblower also related how he knew veterans that had been denied health care at the hospital. However, since the VA scandal broke in the news, the whistleblower states there has been a huge influx of patients into his facility, a move he describes as “a dog and pony show.”

Explaining that the scandal went way beyond patient care, the whistleblower said that corruption within the VA was “overwhelming,” and that working doctors were being replaced by students and residential doctors on weekends to save money.

“That creates a cost cut on the clinical side which lines the pockets of the upper administration and puts our veterans’ health at risk,” asserted the whistleblower, adding that his facility routinely loses patients and that “there’s lack of care everywhere.”

The employee also revealed that cronyism was rampant within the hospital, with family members of existing staff being hired in preference of veterans in desperate need of employment.

“It’s a huge bureaucracy and it’s a huge game and somebody has to break the corruption,” stated the whistleblower, adding that people were scared to speak out because they might lose their jobs and their pensions.

“There’s more than just what you’re seeing on TV and they’re hiding a lot of things and you’re never going to see it on the mass media,” concluded the whistleblower.

The new revelations come in the aftermath of a scandal that has claimed the lives of at least 40 veterans as a result of them being kept on secret waiting lists. The backlogs which caused the deaths are now known to have occurred in at least 19 states. New questions have also emerged about VA workers gaming the system at the expense of veterans. A whistleblower also revealed how she was ordered to falsify records of appointments at Fort Collins, Colorado to make it appear as if veterans were receiving speedy treatment.

Concerns that the VA scandal represents an example of death panels waiting to happen under Obamacare have been expressed in recent days as Obama himself faces mounting criticism over his failure to address the issue publicly.

“It’s simply unconscionable,” said radio host Rush Limbaugh on his national broadcast Monday. “So you have to ask, the natural assumption is that nobody wants these people to die, even if you add the death panel component, nobody wants these people to die, yet they are. At the very least what we’re dealing with here is a total inability to deal with this. And at worst it’s the death panel being done on purpose.”

[2011GT]

I'm watching about the VA scandals on foxnews right now. Feel bad for vets. Why would anybody join the armed forces these days?