By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
All we’ve heard about the Department of Veterans Affairs for the past two years has been negative: months of waiting for treatment; “inept” management, and more recently, Donald Trump’s assertions the VA is not taking care of our veterans.
This morning I visited a veteran and golfing friend — we’ll call him Jim. He was a big burly airline pilot, who once played semi-professional baseball and had a hole-in-one on a 314-yard hole on our golf course.
Until he was diagnosed last year with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
There are 30,000 Americans living with this progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Although looking healthy except for noticeable weight loss, Jim struggled to talk in a whisper as he stared at a handful of pills, mostly vitamins as there is no known medicine that stops or cures ALS.
The day is coming when he will not be able to speak, nor walk.
Jim’s wife told me VA research shows veterans have a 60 percent higher rate of ALS than the general population, and it’s even higher among Iraq vets. This discovery from an “inept” government department.
The VA is covering all my Jim’s medical needs, she said, including regular visits to the hospital, providing a powered wheel chair and a special computer, with which her husband can communicate words with simple eye movements.
Lack of care? Malfeasance?
It was difficult to know what to say to a friend in Jim’s state, other than to express my concern and sorrow.
“I’ve got six months,” Jim whispered. “We’ve had a good life.”
