{"id":127063,"date":"2022-06-22T10:25:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T14:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=127063"},"modified":"2022-06-22T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T14:25:28","slug":"va-patient-advocate-attacks-vietnam-veteran-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=127063","title":{"rendered":"VA &#8220;patient advocate&#8221; attacks Vietnam Veteran patient"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-98657 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_-333x333.png 333w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Seal_of_the_U.S._Department_of_Veterans_Affairs.svg_.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A VA employee, who was a patient advocate ironically enough, has been arrested for assaulting an elderly Vietnam Veteran patient. Naturally he still has his job while the legal proceedings play out. Only in government, folks!<\/p>\n<p>Local news has FOIA&#8217;d for the surveillance video and it&#8217;s pretty shocking. Of course there&#8217;s no audio and it doesn&#8217;t show anything leading up to the incident.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I&#8217;ve obtained by FOIA surveillance video of the brutal beating of elderly Vietnam vet by a VA employee at an Atlanta VA clinic. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/2Investigates?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@2Investigates<\/a> was 1st to report on the attack last month. The attacker, Lawrence Gaillard is still employed by VA. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wsbtv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wsbtv<\/a> at 6<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oLCyCNa8ea\">https:\/\/t.co\/oLCyCNa8ea<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A87YTvSK2q\">pic.twitter.com\/A87YTvSK2q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinGrayWSB\/status\/1538987528543514624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/video-va-employee-body-slamming-veteran\/\">Task &amp; Purpose has the story<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A Department of Veteran Affairs patient advocate who was recorded on a security camera assaulting a veteran patient still has his job.<\/p>\n<p>Video of the encounter,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oLCyCNa8ea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released by WSB-TV<\/a>, shows Phillip Webb, a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran, being choked, body-slammed, and thrown to the ground at the Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic at Fort McPherson. The assault took place on April 28, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence F. Gaillard Jr., a patient advocate at the clinic, was arrested that day and charged with felony assault.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, Webb can be seen in a waiting room. After Gaillard points his finger in Webb\u2019s face, he grabs Webb and throws him against a wall, choking him with both hands. He then throws Webb to the ground and repeatedly kicks him in the head before leaving the room.<\/p>\n<p>The initial charging document from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office in the northern district of Georgia notes that Webb was initially treated by a doctor at the clinic who observed several injuries including a large hematoma over his right eyebrow and a contusion on his elbow. Webb was later hospitalized for three days with a \u201cbrain bleed,\u201d according to WSB-TV.<\/p>\n<p>Webb was at the clinic for an appointment to discuss a hernia surgery. He told WSB-TV that he doesn\u2019t remember much of the attack itself, but the incident began when he knocked on the door of the waiting room to tell Gaillard that he was going to use the restroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was Mike Tyson-ing me there,\u201d Webb told the news station. \u201cI\u2019m just stunned. I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaillard was later released after paying his bond following the initial charge.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta VA office confirmed to Task &amp; Purpose that Gaillard was still under employment.<\/p>\n<p>The case has since been turned over to the Fulton County District Attorney\u2019s office because of jurisdictional issues. That office is now leading the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The press secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Terrence Hays, told Task &amp; Purpose, \u201cWe are horrified at the video of a VA employee assaulting a veteran at the Atlanta VA Health Care System on April 28. This disturbing behavior is contrary to our core values of treating veterans with the dignity and respect they deserve. We take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with Fulton County law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the VA, a patient advocate is \u201can employee who is specifically designated at each VHA facility to manage the feedback received from veterans, family members and friends. The patient advocate works directly with management and employees to facilitate resolutions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With friends like these&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A VA employee, who was a patient advocate ironically enough, has been arrested for assaulting an &hellip; <a title=\"VA &#8220;patient advocate&#8221; attacks Vietnam Veteran patient\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=127063\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">VA &#8220;patient advocate&#8221; attacks Vietnam Veteran patient<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,185,226,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-crime","category-veterans-in-the-news","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}