Some veterans who say they’ve received substandard care at the Manchester veterans hospital have the ear of its leaders.
They achieve this connection through the advocacy of service organizations – such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars – which have a standing monthly meeting with the top officials at the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Paul Lloyd, the state adjutant of the VFW, said he’s generally seen the VA sort these problems out when his organization brings them up. But not all veterans’ problems can be addressed this way.
Lloyd, a Concord resident who served in the Navy, said he was shocked when he read the Boston Globe’s account of a Gilmanton veteran who didn’t have an advocate – and lost his mobility as a result.
“He had basically been misdiagnosed and not properly cared for for over 20 years. I was really surprised,” Lloyd said.
He added: “Let me be frank with you: That really pissed me off that that’s going on. … We really advocate on behalf of the veterans, so that angered us.”
Robert McWhinnie, who served in the Korean War and was a focal point of the newspaper article, underwent two surgeries in 1995 to remove a tumor from his spine, but the surgeon couldn’t get all of it, the Globe reported.
Over the next 21 years, while McWhinnie gradually lost his ability to walk, he went to the Manchester VA dozens of times and never received the type of routine scan that would have shown whether the tumor was growing again, according to the Globe.
“They knew that these things grow back, and they knew if it grows back it’s got to be cared for, so you’ve got to image them on a regular basis,” said McWhinnie’s attorney, Mark Abramson. “If you don’t do that, it could lead to paralysis, and 20 years go by and they don’t even put him in a radiology suite to take a picture.”
Last summer, the head of the Manchester VA’s spinal cord clinic met McWhinnie for the first time and quickly diagnosed him. That doctor compiled a list of 80 patients suffering ailments similar to McWhinnie’s and reported the hospital to the federal Office of the Special Counsel, which found “substantial likelihood” of wrongdoing, the Globe reported.
Abramson predicted the malpractice lawsuit he plans to file on McWhinnie’s behalf will be only the “tip of the iceberg,” as others come forward with complaints of their own.
“This is the same story that has been played out over and over again,” he said. “It’s very third-world what’s been going on there for at least the last 20 years.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin removed two top officials at the hospital hours after the Globe’s report was published.
During the hospital’s regularly scheduled meeting with a group of veterans Monday, state Rep. Al Baldasaro, who was co-chair of veterans issues for President Donald Trump’s campaign, said he had a chance to familiarize the new acting director of the Manchester VA, Alfred Montoya, with the issues facing New Hampshire veterans.
Baldasaro said he trusts that Montoya will be able to sort out the good doctors from the bad ones.
“For a director, he’s a hands-on guy, you know what I mean? He goes down and talks to the veterans,” Baldasaro said. “I think somebody needs to talk to the veterans and see, because one size does not fit all. There’s different issues, different doctors. One doctor they were praising and another one wasn’t doing what he was supposed to.”
Lloyd noted that the VA has its own patient advocate for veterans who aren’t happy with their experience, and therefore it shouldn’t fall to the VFW and other services organizations to hold the hospital accountable.
“It kind of sounds like either that avenue wasn’t working or they didn’t go down that avenue,” Lloyd said. “That’s something we need to have someone take a deeper look at. Maybe the person down there isn’t doing the job they should be for the veterans.”
That will fall under the scope of the ongoing wholesale review at the VA, Baldasaro said.
“There are going to be people from Washington in and out of the VA for the next week or so,” he said.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at
@NickBReid.)