ED TIMPERLAKE: BREAKING FAITH WITH VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS AND VETERANS WHO WILL NEED HELP
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/breaking-faith-with-vietnam-combat-veterans-and-those-veterans-soon-to-need-help?f=puball
The Honorable Ed Timperlake is a Fellow at IASC was the first Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Public Affairs and then Public and Intergovernmental Affairs when VA was elevated to Cabinet status.
Veterans are sick and dying and some at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) simply do not care. It is time for a reckoning.
Over the last few years it has become known that the DVA’s Undersecretary for Benefits has demonstrated total incompetence, and now America is seeing that some leaders in the Veterans Health Administration, as currently reported, may have actually been criminally negligent. The Secretary, based on his Congressional testimony, over time appears rather oblivious.
It is a difficult story to report on because investigating and reporting on the medical health of specific veteran cases, patient privacy safe guards of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) apply. It is the responsibility for all in the media and law enforcement to publicly respect the privacy of veterans and their specific illness, wounds or disease. This is a critical issue, not to further hurt those who have given so much.
However, respecting HIPPA can still allow a discussion of what America’s veterans may be facing when VA care is denied or delayed. The emerging Department of Veterans Affairs scandal of secret waiting lists is abhorrent and unacceptable. For one generation it is doubly hateful and now for our current warriors equally potentially sinister and deadly.
My fellow Vietnam combat veterans were and now should again be concerned about a grateful nation not delivering on earned benefits and letting them die alone waiting in the dark during their end of life years. Unfortunately, veterans and their families have been there before, but one visionary DVA Secretary said not on his watch.
On May 11, 1989 Secretary Derwinski held a news conference and sided with America’s Veterans; he stopped the US Government legal case that was denying disability compensation to Vietnam in-theater veterans based on exposure to Agent Orange (AO).
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/docs/agentorange/reviews/ao_newsletter_oct89.pdf
The Washington Post in Secretary Derwinski’s obituary acknowledged his vision and leadership.
Siding with the veterans, Mr. Derwinski reversed the government’s position and authorized payments to some veterans who had suffered from a rare form of cancer linked to Agent Orange.
Consequently, prior to his action there was little to no motivation for Vietnam Veterans to apply for disability compensation based on exposure to Agent Orange because the VA rejected AO service-connected disability requests. Also, many in those days had justified distaste for the government.
In-country Vietnam Veteran numbers vary, depending on source, between 2.7 to 3 million out of the nine million Vietnam Era service members in uniform during that war.
Without service connection for their adverse health they had little to no incentives to appear at VA with life ending illnesses. For those still alive since Secretary Derwinski’s decision these are some of the AO illness that current veterans may have while waiting for DVA treatment
Chronic B-cell leukemia
Hodgkin’s Disease
Multiple Myeloma
Soft Tissue Sarcomas
Parkinson’s Disease
Prostate Cancer
See more at: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp
So for over two decades Vietnam Vets with AO cancers would have had no connection with DVA, and their family members would also be denied any assistance. Remember the DVA motto is from President Lincoln’s famous words, “To care for him who has borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” So much for that!
Use just one horrible example of Multiple Myeloma among the other listed cancers:
Even with tremendous medical advances, Multiple Myeloma survival is below 50% for a five year survival rate, it also statistically affects African Americans more. Until Multiple Myeloma was service-connected the VA and USG would never specifically know a veteran had died of that nasty disease. (http://www.myelomabeacon.com/news/2013/08/31/multiple-myeloma-survival-race-age/)
Historically before 1989 and to this day, actuary tables would keep those Vietnam Veterans who died young counted as being alive because mathematically they had no visibility into early Vietnam Veteran death from AO related causes.
A simple example, using death from Multiple Myeloma: Multiple Myeloma kills x number a year (which can be tracked) and Vietnam Veterans have a higher statistical probability of death from that disease. However, this specific cause of Agent Orange service-connected death would not have be identified since Vietnam Veterans were not VA “service-connected” until 1989 or later. This was a cohort of specific dying Vietnam Veterans who fell into a mathematical “blind spot” that began in the mid-sixties until 1989 or even later because mortality studies took time to identify additional causes of death related to AO.
Compound that USG Multiple Myeloma “blind spot” with other specific life-ending AO illness from 1965 to 1990 and an uncounted factor of a higher percentage of in-country Vietnam Vets were dying. This statistically higher death rate has been validated by the AO registry.
So it has been proven beyond dispute that Vietnam veterans are dying faster than actuarial tables have predicted for their total generation. After that period of AO “forgotten warriors” delaying or ignoring treatment is one of the worst betrayals in American history. It is an historic violation of the social contract between those who protect us and all other citizens.
For younger veterans, tragically, the environmental effects of the battlefield are now being seen. Starting with Desert Storm veterans and continuing for those serving in our current wars, the Government has learned from AO. This time the VA has created an early registry motivated by Secretary Derwinski.
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/benefits/registry-exam.asp
The statistical certainty for some veterans prematurely dying from Agent Orange related cancers and sadly that trend continuing for those veterans with Gulf War illness and then to be placed on a “secret” DVA deferred treatment lists is a horrible and unforgiveable national tragedy.
The Washington Post captured Secretary Derwinski’s leadership. He often called himself “Corporal Derwinski” his US Army rank in WW II:
To survey the quality of care at hospitals, Mr. Derwinski made surprise visits and spoke to patients about their treatment. If Mr. Derwinski found inadequacies, he fired administrators in charge. He ordered outside consultants to review surgical protocols at the hospitals after several veterans died from complications related to poor care.
“Big Ed” Derwinski also reached out to all employees; he had a box – “Ask the Secretary” – and ANY VA employee by name or not could put a letter in that box. The Secretary read every letter submitted and, trust me, we all heard about any case that had merit.
That was then – this is now.
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