lumberjack in a desert

Posts Tagged ‘prosthetics’

This weekend at the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, WI I won my 8th log rolling world title. Here is the final match, minus the second fall Darren Hudson got on me (for some reason it wasn’t filmed).

I think I did a pretty good job of covering everything that I wanted to say when I was given my award.  Well, almost everything.  I would also like to say something how the VA health care system once again failed in its obligation to provide me with the necessary care and nearly cost me 2.5 months of training and my 8th log rolling world title.

After spending Monday and Tuesday in our local (private, non-VA) hospital with my wife as she gave birth to our first child, I finally succumbed to my deteriorating condition and complete exhaustion and went to VA urgent care in Minneapolis.  That night I spent 6 hours waiting because they apparently they ran out of doctors and had to call some in (they then had the audacity to ask me to be “extra nice” to the doctor because and was only supposed to work on weekends but got called in midweek).  I had trouble understanding how they were “backed up” when there were only four of us waiting.

Despite the fact I had been bitten by three ticks two months earlier and had nearly all the symptoms of Lymes (and was suggesting the entire time that I have Lymes) I was sent home empty handed pending an out-of-state blood test (that may or may not reveal that I have Lymes Disease, even if I have it).   Had I not consulted with medical professionals outside the VA and acquired the necessary antibiotics my condition would not have improved enough to compete in the Lumberjack World Championships, let alone win another log rolling world title.

As much as I would like to give the VA the benefit of the doubt, I find myself unable to do so based on their prior track record of being unable to provide me with the necessary medical care.  It took me over a year of waiting and a congressional inquiry into my case until I was finally given a prosthetic arm to replace the one I received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  (I received a new one within a week of the inquiry).  I bounced around the VA system for year and a half by myself before I was finally assigned a patient advocate to help with my transition from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  During that time I was unsure how to acquire meds, make appoints, or go through the disability rating process.  And despite my many calls to VA personnel to find out when the appoints were for disability rating, I was informed that after months of waiting I had missed all of them because the “system” made the appointments without sending me a letter or issuing a call notification.  After these repeated displays of incompetence, I cannot give the VA the benefit of the doubt any longer.

To me the moral of the story is clear.  The VA is incapable of providing adequate medical care in a timely fashion.  The system is too big, too bureaucratic, and apparently has no oversight whatsoever.  I have finally learned that if I’m going to receive adequate medical care I need to go elsewhere, even if I have to use my disability payments to pay for it.  It’s a shame that I had to risk 2.5 months of training and my 8th log rolling world title to realize it.

And I thought our VA system was bad.

A soldier has spoken of his disgust after his disability benefit was axed despite losing a leg fighting for his country.

Private Aron Shelton, 26, had his left leg amputated in December 2008 after he was injured in an explosion in Helmand province, Afghanistan, a year earlier.

After an 18-month struggle, the Bridlington soldier has learned to walk a few hundred metres with the help of a prosthetic limb.

But as a result of his efforts, the Department for Work and Pensions has ruled this means he no longer needs his £180-a-month Disability Living Allowance.

From September, he will lose his allowance, which he traded in each month in return for the use of a specially-adapted car.

Pte Shelton said that without a car, his dream of rebuilding his life as a taxi driver was in tatters.

He said: “I’m disgusted, shocked and mortified.

“I risked my life and now I feel let down by the Government.

Sounds a bit like my struggles with the VA, only much worse. I waited over a year for a new prosthetic arm only to be ignored and brushed aside.  It wasn’t until a couple congressmen wrote letters that I finally received a new prosthetic arm to replace my worn out one from Walter Reed (within a week, mind you).

You can’t really blame Senate Democrats. They are simply following in the footsteps of Obama, who tried to make wounded Veterans like me pay for our war injuries with private insurance. I guess it’s only fitting they come after my prosthetic arm.  After all, I did have to fight the VA for a year to get it.

As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day with parades and barbecues, America’s veterans face a new tax on prosthetic limbs and other vital medical devices.

The health care overhaul passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama earlier this year contains a new tax on medical devices such as prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, and wheelchairs.  This tax, which its proponents claim will raise $20 billion over the next ten years, contains no exemption for the nation’s 22 million veterans.  In fact, Senate Democrats specifically refused to exempt veterans from the tax.

On March 24 2010, Senate Democrats rejected an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to the healthcare bill.  This amendment (SA 3644) would have prevented the medical device tax from hitting veterans covered by the Veterans Healthcare Program or TRICARE for Life.  This amendment was rejected by a vote of 44-54. All but five Democrat senators voted in favor of retaining the tax for veterans.

The medical device tax was one of over twenty new or higher taxes in President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.  This permanent new tax is being collected now.

“On March 24, Senate Democrats had the opportunity to exempt our veterans from Obamacare’s new tax on medical devices such as prosthetic limbs.  But 54 Democrats voted against the measure.  They chose to side with the tax-and-spend crowd in Washington over our wounded warriors,”said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.  “This is one of the many reasons Harry Reid and the Democrats did not want Americans to read the 2,500 page health care bill before it was passed.”

You can get a complete list of all those who voted for it right here. Among the names are Wisconsin’s very own Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), both clear military haters.