Thousands of people are furious at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) after a former Marine posted pictures on Facebook depicting two elderly veterans in pain being completely ignored by hospital staff.
A former Marine veteran and his wife posted photos of two veterans struggling in the waiting room of a North Carolina VA hospital. One veteran almost fell out of his wheelchair. The other had to lay on the floor to obtain even some relief from the excruciating pain, The Associated Press reports.
And yet, despite their suffering, staff ignored the two veterans for hours, Hanna and Stephen McMenamin said.
Later, one of the men shown in the photograph who was in the wheelchair, Jesse Lee, spoke to WRAL-TV about the unbelievable pain he was in after undergoing a leg amputation.
“Somebody in real bad pain should be seen,” Lee said. “It felt like a railroad spike was going through my foot. It’s like one of the worst pains you’ve ever felt in your life.”
Instead, Lee had to wait for hours.
The other man begged for staff to give him a place to lie down. He was ignored, so he had to lie down on the floor.
The staff at the Durham VA medical center made him get back up.
“That’s somebody’s dad, that’s somebody’s grandfather,” Hanna said.
After the photo went up, the VA contacted the McMenamin’s and pressured them to remove the photo.
Durham VA Director DeAnne Seekins stressed that disrespect towards veterans is not the norm.
“It is an honor to serve America’s heroes and actions that do not align with our core values will not be tolerated,” she said in a statement. “We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality care to the Veterans we serve and being responsive to our patient’s needs. Veterans deserve nothing less.”
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