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Heartless bureaucrats

WILLIE DAVIS

Johnstown

President Trump signed a bill into law giving veterans freedom to see doctors outside the Veterans Administra-tion. This is not so locally. I need treatments not provided at the Altoona VA hospital. The VA insists that I go to the Pittsburgh VA hospital. I must drive 30 miles to catch the VA bus, then endure a painful trip to Pittsburgh. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but I have medical issues in which the level of pain is amplified many times over by this lengthy trip.

Besides being seriously short of breath and having extreme back pain caused by spinal disc problems, I also have very painful swollen legs, with the right leg more so, causing poor blood circulation which increases chances of heart attacks and strokes. My legs are red, swollen, and covered with extremely itchy bumps where red corpuscles are leaking to the skin surface from my veins. My lower legs are saturated with blisters. Walking is difficult, even with my walker.

At home, most of my time is spent in bed or in a recliner with legs lifted on pillows as I have been instructed to do.

Recently, a VA nurse told me that their budget would not allow visits to local doctors when the service was offered in Pittsburgh. I then asked her, “Are you telling me that financial concerns take precedence over the wellbeing of veterans?”

The folks at the Johnstown clinic are wonderful but restricted by the penny-pinching, torture-inflicting, heartless decision-making bureaucrats.

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