http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/15/MNGEGP90EI1.DTL&type=healthSoldiers and vets blast military health system
Frustrations pour out to panel formed after Walter Reed scandal
Robert Pear, New York Times
(04-15) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Wounded soldiers and veterans poured out their frustrations with the military health care system Saturday, telling a presidential commission that they often have difficulty getting care because military doctors are overwhelmed by the needs of service members injured in Iraq.
The soldiers and veterans described the military health care system as a labyrinth and said their families had been swamped with paperwork.
Marc Giammatteo, who has undergone more than 30 operations to repair a leg torn apart by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, said the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., had been inundated with wounded members of the armed forces whose numbers surpassed its capacity.
Giammatteo, a West Point graduate and former Army captain, said he had observed a "lack of caring or compassion in some of the workforce" at Walter Reed.
"On several occasions," Giammatteo said, "I, and others I have spoken to, felt that we were being judged as if we chose our nation's foreign policy and, as a result, received little if any assistance. Some individuals, most of whom are civilian workers and do not wear the uniform, judge the wounded unfairly and treat them similarly, adopting a 'Can't help you, you're on your own' attitude."
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