Department of Veterans Affairs

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'I Dodged All Those Bullets, Then Get Killed by a Fish': Vietnam Vet

Veterans afflicted with rare cancer brought on by fish-borne parasite

(Newser) - They were the lucky ones who managed to make it home from Vietnam. Now, a half-century later, some veterans are finding out they, too, are victims of the war. The enemy is a known killer in parts of Asia: parasites ingested in raw or poorly cooked river fish, the AP...

20 Veterans Commit Suicide Every Day: VA

Most are over 50, according to 2014 data

(Newser) - The first official count of suicides among veterans is grim: 7,403 veterans committed suicide in 2014, or an average of 20 per day, according to Veterans Affairs, which reviewed data from every state. The group estimated there were 22 veteran suicides per day in 2010, but had never taken...

IBM Supercomputer to Help 10K Veterans Beat Cancer

First Watson competed on 'Jeopardy!'; now it's being brought into VA facilities

(Newser) - In January, President Obama handed the reins to Joe Biden to head a "moonshot" initiative to cure cancer , and a major step toward that end has just been made. Per Fortune , IBM will donate its Watson supercomputer technology—the same technology that beat humans on Jeopardy!, CNET notes—to...

Bill Would Give $20K to Vets With Infertility, Groin Injuries

Money could help start family, or be 'used at the veteran's discretion'

(Newser) - Veterans unable to have children because of a service-related injury would receive $20,000 under a bill introduced to the House of Representatives on Monday. Rep. Jeff Miller, who proposed the bill, says the funds would help compensate nearly 1,400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who suffered...

US Veteran Sets Self on Fire Outside VA Clinic

Charles Richard Ingram III died that day

(Newser) - A veteran of the US Navy walked nine miles to a Veterans Affairs clinic in New Jersey earlier this month, poured gasoline on himself, and set himself ablaze. Charles Richard Ingram III, 51, died later on March 19 at a burn center in Philadelphia. "Gasoline burns extremely hot, so...

Calls to VA Suicide Line Went to Voicemail

In-crisis veterans put on hold, sent to voicemail, with calls never returned: report

(Newser) - The Oscar-winning film Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 documents the counselors who man the phones for the 24-hour service, but it never mentions the suicidal veterans who are put on hold or sent to voicemail, with calls never returned—a fact made public last week in a report from the...

Veterans' Health-Care Delays Get Even Worse

The VA is also facing a $3B shortfall

(Newser) - The number of veterans seeking health care but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50% higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, the New York Times reports. The...

Feds to Help Vets Exposed to Contaminated Planes

They'll provide disability benefits for those exposed to Agent Orange residue

(Newser) - Ending years of wait, the government has agreed to provide disability benefits to as many as 2,100 Air Force reservists and active-duty forces exposed to Agent Orange residue on airplanes used in the Vietnam War. The new federal rule, approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget,...

Bomb Blasts May Be Aging Soldiers&#39; Brains
Bomb Blasts May Be
Aging Soldiers' Brains
NEW STUDY
Jun 1, 2015 4:32 PM CDT

Bomb Blasts May Be Aging Soldiers' Brains

Even if they were far from the blasts

(Newser) - American soldiers exposed to bomb blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering early brain degeneration and aging—even if they were far from detonation, USA Today reports. In all, 256 veterans and service members between the ages of 19 and 62 were analyzed in a study published today in Brain:...

VA Chief Lied, Said He Was in Special Forces

Robert McDonald apologizes for remark: 'I have no excuse'

(Newser) - Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald last year took over a department facing no small amount of scandal—and now he's stirred up controversy of his own. It started when he was being taped by CBS while speaking with a homeless veteran in Los Angeles, the Huffington Post reports. The...

Gunman Kills Doctor, Self at VA Hospital

FBI investigating El Paso shooting

(Newser) - A gunman opened fire at the El Paso VA Health Care System in Texas yesterday afternoon, with a Pentagon official telling CNN that he killed a doctor and then himself. Authorities confirmed that the shooter and one other person were dead, but they provided no details, nor did they speculate...

Vietnam Vets Still Battle PTSD Decades Later

New VA study shows it can last a lifetime

(Newser) - Post-traumatic stress doesn't fizzle away after a few years—or perhaps even a lifetime. About 11% of Vietnam War veterans still suffer from the disorder today, according to a new VA study, reports USA Today . It builds off landmark PTSD research conducted in the 1980s and finds that about...

Lawmakers Strike Deal to Overhaul VA

Announcement today comes ahead of recess

(Newser) - Congressional negotiators have hit on a deal to address the serious issues reportedly plaguing Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. The agreement in negotiations led by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican Rep. Jeff Miller comes in the wake of disagreements over dueling Senate and House plans, the Washington Post notes....

Lowe's Workers Fix Vet's Wheelchair (After VA Wouldn't)

It broke down in store, and 3 employees stayed late to repair

(Newser) - A public thank-you by a Vietnam vet to three workers at Lowe's is providing yet more ammo for critics of the VA . As he explains in a letter to the Staten Island Advance , Michael Sulsona lost both his legs to a landmine during the war. He'd been trying...

Vet Dies Waiting for Ambulance... in VA Hospital

He collapsed in Albuquerque VA center cafeteria

(Newser) - Another black eye for the Veterans Health Administration? A 71-year-old veteran died on Monday after waiting up to 30 minutes for an ambulance—while already at a Veteran Affairs hospital. Officials say the man collapsed in the Albuquerque hospital's cafeteria, which is around 1,500 feet from the emergency...

Ex-Proctor & Gamble Exec Tapped to Lead VA

Robert McDonald graduated near top of class at West Point

(Newser) - President Obama plans to nominate former Proctor & Gamble executive Robert McDonald as the next Veterans Affairs secretary, as the White House seeks to shore up an agency beset by treatment delays and struggling to deal with an influx of new veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An...

Whistleblower: VA Covered Up 7 Deaths

Scheduler steps forward in CNN interview

(Newser) - The woman who actually managed the Phoenix VA hospital's secret waiting list has come forward alleging that the facility has covered up the deaths of veterans who died awaiting care. In an interview with CNN , Pauline DeWenter says that in at least seven cases, someone else at the hospital...

Veteran Ignored for 8 Years in Psych Facility
Veteran Ignored for 8 Years
in Psych Facility
new report
Jun 23, 2014 12:41 PM CDT

Veteran Ignored for 8 Years in Psych Facility

Scathing letter reveals VA gets 25% of government's whistleblower complaints

(Newser) - The VA's Office of the Medical Inspector routinely dismisses the agency's deficiencies as harmless to patients' health—even though that is patently and obviously untrue, according to a new report from the Office of Special Counsel that turned up a host of disturbing new allegations against the VA....

VA Manages to Treat Only Half of PTSD Sufferers

Report says military unprepared for coming 'wave' of mental illness

(Newser) - The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs are ill-prepared to handle a looming PTSD epidemic—or even the cases they already have, according to a 300-page study released today. Experts from the Institute of Medicine, under direction from Congress, found that just 53% of veterans whose primary diagnosis was PTSD...

House Passes Bill 421-0 to Let Veterans Ditch VA

Unanimous vote a rarity for Congress

(Newser) - Are you sitting down? Good. Because the House just passed a high-profile bill unanimously. The bill allows veterans to seek treatment outside the Veterans Affairs system using government funds, Politico reports. It closely resembles a bipartisan Senate deal struck between Bernie Sanders and John McCain. The final vote tally was...

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