_________________________________

UPDATE NOTE: Today on January 29,
2008, the House Oversight and
Investigation Subcommitte of
the House Veterans Affairs Comte.
conducted a full hearing and
probe into the death of Veteran
Bob Shanks and the entire official
stream controlling VA Marion,
Illinois. The audio playback
LINK will be posted elsewhere
in this FORUM page for those
who want to hear it. Bob's widow,
Katrina Shanks, gave her tearful
and heartwrenching testimony on
the facts that played out in
the days of her husbands death.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite lambasted
the VA saying: "we are seeing too
much of you here at these hearings"

Damaged Veterans, as well as the
Shanks family, shall be compensated
for their suffering and loss,
per the official testimony of the
VA itself.

_____________________________________


Original Post Below

In recent news, there has been
a VA malpractice story coming
out of VA Marion Illinois about
am Air Force Veteran, Bob Shank,
who was originally from Murray,
Kentucky -- who drove to Marion
for a routine gall bladder surgery.
24 hours later, he was no longer
with us.

The doctor involved, Dr. Jose
Veizaga-Mendez is originally from
Bolivia, and resigned the VA some
3 days after Bob Shanks death.
He had nearly a 20 timeline of
medical practice with no problems,
but prior to coming to the VA
in 2006, he had left a string of
malpractice complaints behind
in both Massachusetts and New
York.

The hiring part of this VA system
is only one part of the crisis.
The complete and utter brokenness,
dysfunction, and absence of all
working law enforcement in favor
to the Veterans is the other part.
To work on one part and then
not work on the other part is
an exercise in futility that only
a different kind of incompetent
would do.

The malpractice cases in the VA
Hospital system has one up over
those who are trapped in the
disability claims backlog: at
least the VA Inspector General
WILL accept and investigate those
cases, and the House and Senate
have both been good about intervening
on mass death situations even though
the regular Dept. of Justice has
not.

But on the Regional Office side
of law enforcement and right where
the Veterans disability claims
really are, there is NO access by
the Veterans to law enforcement
against VA Raters at all !!


The Office of General Counsel as
well as the Dept. of Justice represents
the VA agency and not the Veterans.

The veterans service organizations
provides no complaint process or
assistance, and themselves, don't
even know who to call.

The VA Inspector General refuses all
jurisdiction in criminal complaints
on VA Raters who are trashing cases
or falsifying documents.

The House and Senate, for as many
times as we have explained it to
them, are dumber than a doornail
and cannot figure out how to hold
a public hearing on the issue without
looking like Yutz's themselves
after putting out one phoney
website release after another
singing the praises of the VA ---
even in the face of mass death.

Bob Shank, it can be said, literally
bled to death in a nearly 24 hour
period and this was on top of
many transfusions.

We take this moment to remember
Air Force Veteran Bob Shank,
and the torture he unfairly suffered
at the hands of a Buffoonish agency
who is all about propaganda and
low on national security for our
Vet patients while a totally
asleep at the wheel law enforcement
conglomerate whines about the
detainees at Guatanamo but could
give a royal rats ass about the
value of human life either at
Walter Reed or Marion, Illinois.

We're Veterans --- who cares ??

LINK

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16019211

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,