In the steamy jungles of Vietnam, death could come quickly— as in the time it took for a hushed whisper to a buddy lying next to you in the mud. Turning away; turning back. He never moved or said a thing. But a perfectly formed bullet hole had appeared in the middle of his forehead.
Now, 30 years later, some veterans of one of this country's most poorly administered wars are finding nothing moves quickly when it comes to their post-war medical care. Their complaints describe a feeling of being caught up in an unsympathetic, faceless bureaucratic morass.
The pitfalls and minefields the aging veterans now encounter are no longer as life-threatening as the excrement-laden pongee pits of a bygone guerilla conflict. But some vets say this new conflict is even more insidious. Their will is slowly being sapped and drained away by the numbing, stifling inefficiency of the staff at the local and Miami Veterans Administration medical facilities.
If the goal of the VA is to cull their rolls, it may be working. Most of the veterans interviewed for this story were somewhere in the VA system, but for personal reasons, were also getting second opinions from outside doctors. These are mostly men in their late 40s to mid-50s, already claiming to be slightly terrorized by a system that has left them with strong feelings of vulnerability. Almost to a man, they preferred to withhold their identities from publication out of fear of retaliation, which they feared could come in the form of "lost records" and other problems.
One "Nam-vet," a 27-year resident of the Keys, reported a severe seizure that resulted in a fractured shoulder. "They (Key West VA medical clinic) had me wait three months to see a doctor," he said. The 47-year-old previously had an aneurysm and now needs an operation on his lower spine.
One person who has no problem letting her identity be known is D. Shirlee Ezmirly. The longtime Key West business woman has taken a special interest in this veteran's case. In fact, she recently accompanied him to the clinic after hearing his repeated complaints. "It was such a miserable experience. First we had to sign in," she said. "We still didn't get to see the doctor. And for some reason, they wouldn't allow us to file a complaint."
Ezmirly, a former Coast Guard employee whose father was a Navy vet, youngest son in the Air Force and daughter just retired from the Navy, was outraged. "You don't treat a veteran like that," she said.
She said she could not understand why they have kept him waiting so long. The man is legally blind and living on his disability. Ezmirly has since been able to get him seen by a civilian neurologist.
"It took him (the doctor) an hour and a half for what it has taken the VA a year and a half to determine— that I need an operation on my lower spine," he said. He said this doctor works with the VA in Illinois "and was appalled with what goes on here."
The Key West clinic describes itself as "a satellite clinic affiliated with the VA Medical Center in Miami." Dr. Oscar Fernandez, new chief of staff at the Key West offices, was seeing a patient on Wednesday. His staff was informed of KWTN's inquiry and was asked to have him respond to some of the criticism. No response has been forthcoming.
As for the vet's fractured shoulder, he said the clinic told him there was nothing they could do now "because they had waited too long." But the latest report from the neurologist has him clearly worried. "Now, I find out that if I don't get this (spine operation) done quick, I'm gonna' wind up in a wheelchair," he said.
Another vet, this one with 23 years in the military, is similarly upset with his treatment. "You feel like you're being passed around. They kept dragging it on, didn't keep my medication up and dropped my