nastyleg
09-17-2009, 02:12 AM
VA let us down, says soldier’s mom
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 16, 2009 16:35:14 EDT
The mother of a severely wounded Army veteran choked back tears Wednesday as she told attendees of a seminar on veterans’ health care that she believes the government has let her and her son down.
“It is very sad this country has let us down so incredibly,” said Leslie Kammerdiener, mother and caregiver of Army Cpl. Kevin Kammerdiener, a 173rd Airborne Brigade soldier who suffered severe burns and brain injuries in a 2008 roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
A low point came earlier this year, Kammerdiener said, when her son indicated by hand movements that he wanted to hang himself. She said she called the Veterans Affairs Department asking for help because her son was suicidal; she waited days but got no return call.
She got help only after tracking down a doctor at a military event and pleading for help, she said.
Kammerdiener told her story at an Alexandria, Va., conference sponsored by the Military Officers Association of America and the U.S. Naval Institute that focused on what the government is doing and should be doing to help combat veterans with invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.
Kammerdiener had high praise for the immediate care her son received for his burns at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. But once her son was transferred, care began to erode, she said.
In a sign of what was to come, when her son arrived at VA’s polytrauma center in Tampa, Fla., on Labor Day weekend in 2008, the hospital had no medicine for him, no bed and no food for his feeding tube because they seemed to be unaware he was coming, she said, adding that her son went 30 hours without being fed.
Kammerdiener said she has seen drug overdoses, missing sitters who were supposed to be staying with brain-injured patients and therapists who did not show up for appointments. Through it all, she said, she has felt mostly alone.
Kammerdiener said she didn’t know anything about the military when her son was injured. Only later did she realize additional help and benefits might have been available if she had only known about them.
“The system is very harsh for a lot of us,” she said. “We did not have a good experience.”
Kammerdiener said the federal recovery coordinator assigned to her by VA is “the one thing that keeps me going.”
Noel Koch, deputy undersecretary of defense for transition policy and care coordination, made no excuses when he followed Kammerdiener on the afternoon panel discussion, saying the military does great briefings, conferences and presentations but has difficulty providing coordinated care. The Defense Department is trying to do better, Koch said.
Shannon Maxwell, wife of combat-injured retired Marine Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, said she has seen improvements in VA.
“VA is now recognizing caregivers as part of the team,” she said, noting that she was once forced to leave a room when her brain-injured husband was being seen by doctors.
Her husband was injured by mortar fire in Iraq in 2004, suffering a brain injury. He remained on active duty until his retirement in June.
Shannon Maxwell said she needed more help getting information about her husband’s medical retirement so she could do better planning.
“There need to be knowledgeable people explaining the situation,” she said.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/military_wounded_soldiermother_091609w/
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 16, 2009 16:35:14 EDT
The mother of a severely wounded Army veteran choked back tears Wednesday as she told attendees of a seminar on veterans’ health care that she believes the government has let her and her son down.
“It is very sad this country has let us down so incredibly,” said Leslie Kammerdiener, mother and caregiver of Army Cpl. Kevin Kammerdiener, a 173rd Airborne Brigade soldier who suffered severe burns and brain injuries in a 2008 roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
A low point came earlier this year, Kammerdiener said, when her son indicated by hand movements that he wanted to hang himself. She said she called the Veterans Affairs Department asking for help because her son was suicidal; she waited days but got no return call.
She got help only after tracking down a doctor at a military event and pleading for help, she said.
Kammerdiener told her story at an Alexandria, Va., conference sponsored by the Military Officers Association of America and the U.S. Naval Institute that focused on what the government is doing and should be doing to help combat veterans with invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.
Kammerdiener had high praise for the immediate care her son received for his burns at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. But once her son was transferred, care began to erode, she said.
In a sign of what was to come, when her son arrived at VA’s polytrauma center in Tampa, Fla., on Labor Day weekend in 2008, the hospital had no medicine for him, no bed and no food for his feeding tube because they seemed to be unaware he was coming, she said, adding that her son went 30 hours without being fed.
Kammerdiener said she has seen drug overdoses, missing sitters who were supposed to be staying with brain-injured patients and therapists who did not show up for appointments. Through it all, she said, she has felt mostly alone.
Kammerdiener said she didn’t know anything about the military when her son was injured. Only later did she realize additional help and benefits might have been available if she had only known about them.
“The system is very harsh for a lot of us,” she said. “We did not have a good experience.”
Kammerdiener said the federal recovery coordinator assigned to her by VA is “the one thing that keeps me going.”
Noel Koch, deputy undersecretary of defense for transition policy and care coordination, made no excuses when he followed Kammerdiener on the afternoon panel discussion, saying the military does great briefings, conferences and presentations but has difficulty providing coordinated care. The Defense Department is trying to do better, Koch said.
Shannon Maxwell, wife of combat-injured retired Marine Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, said she has seen improvements in VA.
“VA is now recognizing caregivers as part of the team,” she said, noting that she was once forced to leave a room when her brain-injured husband was being seen by doctors.
Her husband was injured by mortar fire in Iraq in 2004, suffering a brain injury. He remained on active duty until his retirement in June.
Shannon Maxwell said she needed more help getting information about her husband’s medical retirement so she could do better planning.
“There need to be knowledgeable people explaining the situation,” she said.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/military_wounded_soldiermother_091609w/