Never Forget Our Vets
My dad’s hearing was damaged more than half a century ago when, as a young man, he trained to be an Army military policeman during the war in Korea.
MPs were required to qualify for every weapon, including the exceptionally loud .50 caliber machine gun.
One day, while congested with a cold, the concussive impacts of the gun’s noise caused blood to seep out of his nose and ear.
His hearing would never be the same and it grew gradually worse until he went completely deaf in his left ear before he was 45.
For years, he and my mother tried to apply for care from the Veterans Administration, but after going through the lengthy bureaucratic application process, they were never approved.
It wasn’t until a year ago, in his 87th year, that my sister completed some VA applications to see if any assistance was available.
Truth be told, none of us expected he’d receive any help.
Our understanding, shaped by my parents’ prior experiences and a series of negative news stories over time, was that the VA — now named the Department of Veteran Affairs — wasn’t going to be the place to go to get better care than he was already getting.
Thankfully, we were wrong.
The VA arranged assessments with a hearing specialist and a retired primary care doctor who had both contracted with the VA. This time, its bureaucrats determined that my father qualified for a top-notch hearing aid that was far superior to the devices he’d been buying.
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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
