I have no idea what to say. I'm speechless, but very angry and upset. So I'll just let Dana Priest say it all:
"Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility":
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007; Page A01
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them -- the majority soldiers, with some Marines -- have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.
They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially -- they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1 -- that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.
Not all of the quarters are as bleak as Duncan's, but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed's treatment of the wounded, according to dozens of soldiers, family members, veterans aid groups, and current and former Walter Reed staff members interviewed by two Washington Post reporters, who spent more than four months visiting the outpatient world without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials. ...
[...]
On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.
Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment. ...
Read all.
I checked to see if anyone else had diaried this, and no one has. But I did find, in my search results, this diary from yesterday:
Playboy: The Human Cost of War. PTSD
by npbeachfun
From a Playboy press release:
Iraq war veterans are not receiving the mental health care they deserve, specifically when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Boal spoke with numerous mental health experts, government sources and former military personnel whom paint a disturbing picture about the government’s handling of PTSD.
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ONE GREAT WAY TO HONOR OUR SOLDIERS, via filmmaker Robert Greenwald at Brave New Films: Iraq Memorial, dedication March 19 (the start date of the war)
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UPDATE: In a comment below, Phil S 33 added this key information:
The fiscal budget numbers proposed tell alot (1+ / 0-)
From AAMC
Medical Facilities: The Administration requests $3.569 billion, an increase of $271 million (8.2 percent) over FY 2006, but a $146 million (3.9 percent) decrease below FY 2005;
Yeah, they really support the troops!!!!
Phil S 33 also found this:
our more years of treatment--from Wiki
The transfer of services from the existing to the new facilities will be gradual to allow for continuity of care for the thousands of servicemembers, retirees and family members that depend upon Walter Reed AMC. The date for final closure of the current WRAMC facility has been set for an unspecified date in 2011.
2011!!!!
Wiki