{"id":31844,"date":"2012-08-31T16:07:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T20:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=31844"},"modified":"2012-08-31T16:07:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T20:07:13","slug":"va-screws-battle-of-the-bulge-vet-out-of-basic-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=31844","title":{"rendered":"VA screws Battle of the Bulge vet out of basic needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adirondack Patriot sends us links to the story in the Albany Times Union<\/a> of 93-years-old Vahan Zarifian, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who is disabled. He moved from New Jersey where the VA provided him with visits from a nurse three times a week to help him take care of basic needs like bathing and a shave. But when he moved to Albany, the VA cut those visits to two and Mr. Zarifian had to beg and plead to get those.<\/p>\n

So, since no one should have to live on two baths a week, he finagled a third from Catholic Charities. When the VA found out, they cut their own visits to one every week.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a punishment at all,” insisted Stratton [Veterans’ Administration Health Center] spokesman Peter Potter, who added that Zarifian’s home visits might have been reduced regardless of the external help.<\/p>\n

Potter also stressed Stratton has offered Zarifian two weekly visits to the hospital’s Holland Avenue campus, which is four miles from the Menands home he shares with his granddaughter. Transportation is free, Potter said, and services available at the hospital are superior to what’s offered during a home visit.<\/p>\n

“He’s being provided access to a very high level of care,” Potter said. “Any statement saying he’s getting less care (than in New Jersey) is not an accurate statement.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, if Mr. Zarifian wants to travel four miles to get his bath and shave, he can. but would you want to wait for the VA’s free transportation just so you can scrape the previous day off with a bunch of other guys who need baths? <\/p>\n

If it’s so easy for Mr. Zarifian to travel four miles, it would be just as easy, if not easier, to send a nurse four miles to give a veteran a measure of dignity.<\/p>\n

I can’t figure out why the VA jerked one visit out from under him just because he found a charity to give the one they wouldn’t. That has bureaucratic revenge written all over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adirondack Patriot sends us links to the story in the Albany Times Union of 93-years-old Vahan … VA screws Battle of the Bulge vet out of basic needs<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31844","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}