The Veteran Medical Centers of the United States..

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I don't know about the VA centers in other areas.. but ours stinks!! Two years ago we learned that my FIL was getting sick. All we knew at that time was that his body was no longer producing its own blood and he needed blood transfusions. We actually had to research on the internet to figure out what it was because the VA never told us. In fact, they told us nothing until this past August when they discovered that FIL's illness had progressed to leukemia. My FIL has been in and out of the VA for these past two years with various problems. The biggest problem he's had is weakness and general ill feeling whenever his blood got low. In fact, for awhile his blood was getting so low, he actually had a heart attack from lack of blood. After the heart attack the doctors finally decided not to let his levels get so low again. Another problem I've had with the VA is that no matter what FIL has been going through, the doctors there at the VA would keep sending him home, even though we all felt like he should not be home. One time they sent him home, and the very next day he fell due to weakness and ended up back in the hospital. FIL lived alone, but nobody at the hospital seemed to care that he could not care for himself, and they kept sending him home, usually just for a day or two until he needed to go back. A few weeks ago his condition worsened, and he had what they call a "blast cycle". His body created so many white blood cells that they were actually clogging up his blood vessels. When this happened, the VA sent him over to the university hospital for a procedure to filter off the white blood cells. The doctors at the University Hospital thankfully realized that my FIL was not fit to go home when nobody was there to care for him 24/7. So they set to work on finding more permanent care for him. Unfortunately, the VA was paying for FIL to stay at the University Hospital. The VA decided, without consulting anyone.. not even FIL, that they were going to send him to a different VA hospital in a different county.. only days before FIL was supposed to be transfered to a hospice facility. Thankfully my husband learned of this plan before it happened, and he put a stop to it, and FIL ended up getting into the hospice care place sooner than expected. He's been there since this past Thursday. However, the hospice care facility does not believe in giving any sort of treatment, not even insulin although FIL is a diabetic. They're also not giving him the pills he was taking to reduce his white blood cell count, and he's not getting blood transfusions anymore either. Hubby just went up to see his father, and he thinks he's basically unconcious at this point. FIL will be dying shortly. But I can't get over the awful treatment FIL received from the VA. They didn't seem to care what happened to him, whether he lived or died, or fell and broke a hip while at home.. or anything. How terrible is that? The man served in the Army, fought in the Korean war, and this is the treatment he gets during his final hours from the country he fought for? Pathetic if you ask me! I'm also not too fond of this hospice care, honestly. Not giving a diabetic insulin is like telling someone not to breathe. Not giving a leukemia patient blood transfusions is like telling people not to eat. But hospice views these things as life prolonging treatments. All they will administer is pain medications. Have you or someone you've known gotten terrible treatment from a VA medical center?