Neglect at Walter Reed (Updated)

The already-horrible story about patient mistreatment and neglect at Walter Reed Army Medical Center just got much, much worse. Not only are soldiers there being punished for the center's exposed failures. But it turns out that the Army's surgeon general and other "top officials" have known about these patients' slum-like living conditions for more than three years.

*A procession of Pentagon and Walter Reed officials expressed surprise last week about the living conditions and bureaucratic nightmares faced by wounded soldiers staying at the D.C.
medical facility. But as far back as 2003, the commander of *Walter
Reed,Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and
Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds, according to interviews...

In 2004, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife... voiced concerns to commanders over troubling incidents he witnessed but was rebuffed or ignored... Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, "I
went flying down to Kevin Kiley's office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else."

Young said that even after Kiley left Walter Reed to become the Army's surgeon general, "if anything could have been done to correct problems, he could have done it."

This is so completely and utterly wrong - a breaking of the most fundamental compact a country can have with its soldiers. I'm disgusted. And to make matters even worse, I'm hearing that Walter Reed may not be the only military medical facility where there's some serious patient neglect going on. If you've got any info on that, e-mail me. As always, all conversations will be kept confidential.

UPDATE: Former Walter Reed patient Chuck Ziegenfuss (I've written about him before) has some blood-boiling descriptions of his time there:

*I remember the "fun" we had just trying to go home from WRAMC. The administrators seemed shocked that anyone wanted to go home and stay, as opposed to just living there indefinitely and taking convalescent leave after convalescent leave. We first had to figure out who we needed to see, then get the right papers, then get them signed/filled/stamped correctly, turn them in to the right people, then get more papers stamped/signed/filled, ad infinitum. It was a viscious cycle that made many refer to Walter Wunnerful as a P.O.W.
camp--Prisoner of WRAMC. And this was to leave, not stay! Eventually, I had to type and submit my own orders assigning me (detaching me from
MedHold and reassigning me) back to Fort Riley. (I didn't "generate"
the orders, I actually did the work in the Army system to have the orders cut. Good thing I had done penance as a personnel officer prior to taking command.) *

Then I had to clear post, just like any other soldier who had been assigned there, going to various agencies
(PX, bank, commissary, library, Medical Records, etc) collecting signatures to prove I didn't have any outstanding debts with them. Lots of fun when all you want to do is go to OT/PT and sleep. The thing is,
I wasn't "assigned" to WRAMC. The medhold company cut me orders assigning me to them, but Big Army still tracked me with my unit rear-detachment. Knowing this, I had some wiggle room to bend and twist reality as I saw fit. Having a rear-detachment commander at Fort Riley who truly did care about me and my family made all the difference. I still remember him telling me "Bullshit! You're still on my books, you haven't out-processed here, so you can't in-process there! Screw those monkeys!"--or words to that effect. Knowing that your true chain of command is on your side is a huge determinant of success. (By the way, thanks again MAJ Stowell.)

Believe it or not, the chain of command at med hold actually reviews the lists of people going to morale events--to the Pentagon welcome home ceremony, concerts, movies, even Fran Obrien's--to see if soldiers are able to work. Their thinking: if you can go do this stuff, then you can do work for med hold company. Sitting at a desk doing mindless tasks for eight hours is
SO much like visiting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for a two hour picnic.

He also adds, "We don't need cameras and reporters crawling all over WRAMC looking for a pulitzer trying to help."

(High five: DI)