Vet Dies 500 Yards From VA Hospital ER After 30-Minute Ambulance Wait
You want a scandal? Okay, here’s a real one. Not a phony one cooked up to make President Obama look bad. This makes every administration look bad and, unlike the phony IRS “scandal,” it’s a matter of life and death.
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 10:05 am
How do we know the IRS scandal is phony?
budda July 4th, 2014 at 10:16 am
Because Republicans are pushing it. Really that simple.
Linda1961 July 4th, 2014 at 10:22 am
This story is about the VA, and a man’s death, and your response to ask if the IRS scandal is phony.
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 10:27 am
No, the article specifically states that the IRS scandal is phony.
Linda1961 July 4th, 2014 at 10:36 am
Yes, it did, but you don’t seem to care at all about the veteran who died.
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 12:28 pm
WOW, what a huge leap in logic. If the main point is to specifically stay with the death of the veteran then fine. Once the gratuitous shot about the IRS scandal became part of the narrative, it was fair game for comment and/or clarification. Is it honest debate or like-minded high fiving that is the goal here?
mea_mark July 4th, 2014 at 10:28 am
Hijacking a thread will get your comments deleted.
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 10:29 am
I hardly see how it is hijacking when the article makes the specific assertion
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 12:24 pm
I addressed a specific assertion made in the article, how is that hijacking? Is moderating done by the content of the post or identity of the poster?
mea_mark July 4th, 2014 at 12:45 pm
That was a tease line to get people to read the article and not part of the article. The article started at “A veteran who needed …”.
Jeff Allen July 4th, 2014 at 2:31 pm
I guess I’ll have to watch and see that others are always addressing only the main content of the articles and not “tease lines”. Is there a link to site standards like there was on FreakoutNation so that I can familiarize myself with the boundaries?
Linda1961 July 4th, 2014 at 10:25 am
Doesn’t anyone in the VA have any common sense? And what kind of protocol calls for an ambulance to transport someone from the cafeteria located in the same building as the emergency room?!? Why didn’t they put the poor guy on a stretcher or a wheelchair and take him to the emergency room themselves?
Carla Akins July 4th, 2014 at 11:22 am
I’m with you, can you honestly tell me that the cafeteria of the VA hospital has no wheelchairs sitting around. Who on god’s green earth thought it was a good idea to continue to wait after the first few minutes?
My first ex-husband (he just retired) is a Vietnam war vet, he arrived in 1968. He goes to the VA for everything of course. He has a partial disability due to Agent Orange and has/had liver cancer which has required surgery twice.
Luckily, our daughter is an ER logistics Administrator at a local private hospital. Her incredible wealth of all things insurance/hospital has come in handy more times than I could count – even at the VA. As a result, her Dad doesn’t run into the standard run around and he always has everything required when he shows up.
Is this fair to other vets seeking help at the VA? Not a lot, it’s not about pulling favors, she doesn’t have that kind of pull but it has a great deal to do with knowing the system and how to approach getting service. She has said for years that the VA needs liaisons between the vets and the system.
I have a niece who holds a position called a “Child Life Specialist” at a Children’s Hospital. It’s her job to put the parents at ease, explain any procedure and process (Dr speak & parent speak are not the same) advise them of all resources and be sure they know what’s expected of them for everything to go smoothly. She loves her job and it provides a ton of job satisfaction.
The same type of position would work wonders at the VA.
fake July 5th, 2014 at 1:12 am
It’s called government. Get used to dealing with red tape in this socialist country.
ChrisVosburg July 4th, 2014 at 1:28 pm
The AP report is puzzling.
In the lede, it’s “Officials at the hospital said it took a half an hour for the ambulance to be dispatched and take the man from one building to the other,” and then in the first paragraph it says that he “died after waiting around 20 minutes for an ambulance,” and then in the next paragraph, it becomes “It took between 15 and 20 minutes for the ambulance to be dispatched and take the man from one building to the other.”
Make up your minds, AP.