Was it a Merry Christmas for Richard Gray finally from the VA?

Since 01-06-06

From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 4:10 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: "Merry Christmas," Richard Gray

http://www.mainelincolncountynews.com/index.cfm?ID=15967


Merry Christmas, Richard Gray

By Mike Colbert

Richard Gray

Richard Gray, a Desert Storm veteran living in Westport Island, is getting his severely damaged back fixed after more than a decade of being neglected by the Veterans Administration. If all goes according to plan, Gray should be home by Christmas, with a present he’s wanted for years, a back that works.

Gray was blown off a tank in 1991 while training coalition troops. After lingering in an Army hospital with heart, lung and broken bone problems, he was honorably discharged with a physical disability and sent to the Veterans Administration. Despite the extreme pain in Gray’s back, his problem remained undiagnosed.

“That’s the big question mark,” Gray said in a previous interview. “How can you be honorably discharged with a physical disability, and have no disability, no severance pay, nothing?” Gray said he applied for help at the VA when he was discharged, but was denied benefits.

While the “bureaucratic nightmare” at the VA is even now still dragging on some 13 years later, an ad hoc group of citizens has pulled together to help Gray.

Thanks to Brenda Downing at DePuy Spine and surgeon Dr. Philip Anson at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Gray is about to get the operation he needs.

The surgical installation of an artificial disc in his lower back should solve most, if not all, of Gray’s pain problem.

Downing sent a copy of the Nov. 10 Lincoln County News front-page article about Gray to her boss, who then sent it to his boss. She also shared the article with Anson.

The article worked its way up the chain from the Portland office of DePuy Spine to Johnson and Johnson headquarters.

Along with the article, Downing sent a request for a humanitarian gift of one of the company’s artificial discs to restore Gray’s back.

“There were quite a few e-mails that went around the country,” said Downing. The disc costs $11,000 and is not currently covered by Medicaid or other insurers, even though it has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Gray said he was forced to seek outside medical attention when the VA refused to order tests that could properly diagnose his condition. He paid for x-rays, magnetic resonant imaging and discography tests out of his own pocket. “This is downright ridiculous. They’ve never ordered one single test.”

In fact, said Gray, the VA denied him any help for the first six years of his discharge. It wasn’t until Disabled American Veterans got involved that that changed.

Gray spent those six years struggling with intense pain, without the benefit of medical help. “I didn’t have anything, No morphine, nothing.”

The treatment he eventually received from the VA, however, only masked the pain with an ever-increasing dosage of morphine and other painkillers.

In August of this year Gray contacted Senator Susan Collins Office.

Togus Medical Center Director John Sims responded to a letter from Collins office at that time. Sims indicated that the VA was uncertain whether or not disc replacement was “appropriate” for Gray.

The irony, said Gray, is that over the years the VA never ordered the tests that would have helped them to make that decision. Yet two independent practitioners have told Gray that he would be an ideal candidate for the operation, which has a 20-year track record in Europe and a near 90 percent success rate.

In early November Gray called Senator Collins office in Augusta to see what progress if any they had made. There was no news.

The day following the publication of Gray’s story in the Nov. 10 edition of the Lincoln County News, however, Gray received a personal phone call from Bill Card, Senator Collins State Office Representative in Augusta.

At the time, Card told Gray that Card would personally meet with Sims and another upper echelon VA bureaucrat on the following day, Nov. 11.

That was the last Gray heard from Card.

On Nov. 29, Dec. 1 and Dec. 8, the Lincoln County News left messages asking Card to call to discuss the Gray case.

On Dec. 8 Card called back and simply left a message suggesting that talking to Collins’ Press Secretary in the Washington D.C. office would be more appropriate, even though Card was the one who was supposed to meet with Sims.

Card returned another call from the Lincoln County News on Dec. 8, after the LCN left a message detailing significant veteran and media interest in the story. He called at the end of the day to say he had good news, that he had just learned from Jim Doherty at the Togus VA that they would be sending Gray to the Walter Reed Army hospital in Washington D.C. for an “evaluation.”

“Of course, you understand, there’s no promise that they’re going to do surgery,” Gray said, reporting on the call from Card.

The news was not exactly good, or even new. Gray said that he had researched the matter himself and had asked Administrative Assistant Monica Beaulieu at Togus in May of 2005 to please send him to Walter Reed.

He was told at that time it wasn’t going to happen, and that the VA would not pay for any healthcare outside the VA system. Walter Reed is an Army hospital. Initial indications have it that the VA in Togus is one of the few that does not have a contract with Walter Reed.

Gray said the turn around was surprising, since in October a call from Collins’ office had confirmed that decision makers at Togus had refused permission for Gray to go to Walter Reed.

From Dec. 8 to Dec. 20, however, there was no news from the VA. No one called Gray to schedule the trip to Walter Reed or even to confirm Card’s news.

On Dec. 12 the LCN again left a message for Card asking him for more details about his meeting with Sims.

Card returned the call on Dec. 13, and again left a message with Press Secretary Kevin Kelly’s phone number in DC.

On Friday, Dec. 16, Kelly said he could not answer detailed questions, but would talk to Card and find out the details on what exactly the Augusta Office had done to help Gray.

Later that day Kelly called back. Kelly said Card told Kelly that Card had talked to Jim Doherty in the Medical Director’s Office. For more details, however, Kelly said he would have Card call the LCN, but not until Dec. 20.

Card did not call on Dec. 20, nor did he return the call the LCN placed to him on that day.

On Dec 20, a call to the Togus VA found Doherty informing the Lincoln County News that he was unable to discuss Gray’s case for reasons of confidentiality.

Within minutes of that call to the VA, Gray said he received a call from Administrative Assistant Monica Beaulieu in Togus, informing him that she had the go ahead to send him to Walter Reed Army hospital for a second opinion. When Gray asked her when that would happen, she replied “maybe a month to six weeks,” said Gray.

“After that evaluation we’re going to come back and figure out what to do,” Gray said Beaulieu told him.

“This whole situation has been bizarre, chaotic, nightmarish,” said Gray. “Nightmare doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“I’m not an activist, but this is the one thing that upsets me,” said Downing. “What about these guys in Iraq?”

“It’s just sad, with these guys starting to show up from Iraq,” said Gray. “They have no idea. Their fight’s only begun when they get home."
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)