Dakota Beacon

We as Disabled Veterans put up with many insults and don’t say anything .We just keep on fighting in silence.

No more; I for one have had enough; I am a 100% Service Connected, Permanent and Totally Disabled Veteran.

(Meaning I got broke on active duty).

Last year the VA hired a board of individuals hired to cut costs; it is called the Clinical Resource Management Team. It sounds quite innocuous doesn’t it? This board is anything but that.

Here is where I finally draw the line; I have a condition that is called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD Type II is the old name for it). 

Unlike others who get this, I happen to have it spread to my entire body.  So the VA decided that it is better to farm my care out to the Merit Care Pain Clinic, which has the expertise to treat my condition, and now they finally, after almost 7 years, have gotten my pain under control to the point that as long as I don’t do anything stupid and aggravate it, I can reasonably function (sort of).

 I need to be monitored on a monthly basis because of side effects, and for the progression of this condition. Eventually I will get to enjoy uncontrolled pain so bad that no medication will be able to numb the pain enough that is always there 24/7/365.

Now this panel consisting of 1 doctor (Dr. Youseff Solomon) that has no idea what my condition consists of (he admitted this) and doesn’t care.  This so-called Team also has two Registered Nurses , who are not going to try and override a Doctor or they will be out on the street most likely, or on bed pan duties forever.

So this guy is making financial decisions for the Fargo VA regardless of the care that is needed and covered by our status as Service Connected Disabled Veterans.

Solomon flat out said that even if it is chronic/ service connected/ documented/ and has been getting the care from Merit Care Pain Clinic for years he didn’t care and will deny the referral to the pain clinic, or any other outside medical resources  because he can. So much for his oath to do no harm!!!  What I see is a prime example of abuse of us the Service Connected Disabled Veteran’s from Dr. Youseff Solomon; is when the patents advocate Victor Martinez, and my primary VA Doctor, Dr. Steven Chervenkoff at the Fargo VA, had a meeting yesterday which saw a very tiny bit of progress.

They tentatively had secured 2 more visits, but that was a short lived victory due to Solomon cornering Victor Martinez, and deciding that he will now only approve 1 more visit because he didn’t like that Dr.  Chervenkoff was challenging his authority.  So I guess his ego was bruised (so what; grow up) I fully expect that there will be an attempt at retaliation towards both Victor, and Dr. C. It appears that this guy is very vindictive …. Great so at this time I will have approximately 90 days until I am screwed because of Solomon! How many more of us are now in this predicament from this guy?

The head of Merit Care Pain Clinic is the Doctor I see every month. He has decades of pain management credentials, including Teaching it to other wanabe Doctors.

So now instead of trying to be a productive member of society and trying to have some type of life… I now get to look forward to a life of being curled up in a corner and screaming in pain until I pass out. Then start the cycle all over again once I become conscious.

How many other Service Connected Disable Veterans has this guy screwed up or made worse by his refusal to sign a consultation for a specialist that the VA doesn’t have?  Ask yourself these questions.

How much more damage will this fool inflict on us Veterans before he is stopped?

Has he killed a cancer patient because of his power of the refusal pen?

Has he had someone off himself because he couldn’t get help because this Solomon denied him the care he earned while in the service to his country….

Did you know that our health care and any disability compensation is considered WELFARE; did you know this? Therefore, instead of the VA being Fully Funded as a Regular Department of the Federal Government, the head of the VA Gen. Eric K. Shinseki has to go begging (for lack of a better analogy) for funding, and each year we get to watch our benefits taken away little by little from what we were promised when we signed up, because they will never fund the VA fully.

We are not asking for anything more than what was guaranteed in the contracts we entered into. The crappy pay, the long hours, the time spent away from families, I can deal with. That is just part of the job, but I love this country more than life itself and I will not shut up and sit down. 

So I guess the years we spend in the service of our country putting our collective A## ‘s on the line for years means nothing  and this is how we get thanked by the cutting off of our health care (Promise= If you get hurt while in the service the VA will pay for your health care for that injury for the rest of your life, if you live)

I spent almost 18 years between both the Marine Corps and then the Coast Guard, and this is how I get thanked.

What a joy, I wonder if this fool has ever served a day in his life, or is he one of those guys that has to prove he is as good as us Vets, or has so much contempt of us that this is his way of getting back at us because he could never hack it ---- got news for you pal, you if you want to become a bean counter than go be an accountant!

As a final note Victor Martinez, Patient Advocate, and Dr. Chervenkoff Gold Team should be getting hazardous duty pay for having to deal with people like Solomon!

The care that we get at the Fargo VA has been excellent to this point. That will soon change if this panel of bean counters is allowed to continue to exist!

V/R

Dustin Wagner

USMC/USCG (ret)