Vanderhoef’s letter to Dubya
- April
- 11
Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has penned a letter to President Bush calling on him  or “respectfully” recommending, in the letter itself  to keep severely wounded soldiers on active duty status for a longer period of time so they can benefit from the military’s insurance.
Vanderhoef said the idea came from Jerry Donnellan, director of Rockland’s Veterans Service Agency. Once wounded soldiers are moved to veteran status, Vanderhoef said today, they lose their military insurance and are often treated at VA hospitals that doon’t have the state-of-the-art treatment needed for complex injuries. This can happen, he wrote, before the soldier’s rehabilitation is complete.
Traumatic brain injury is this war’s signature wound and not every hospital or VA facility is equipped to deal with it, Vanderhoef said today.
“When decisions are made, by moving these patients through the systems, they are not made by skilled medical professionals, but by bureaucracies,” the letter reads. “As a consequence, we believe the veterans are not being fully rehabilitated and that will increase the future cost of care for these people.”
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