The V.A. Hospital:
Two months ago I rushed to the VA hospital ER with congestive heart failure and filled out all the paperwork and was treated and eventually released.
I was later notified that I wasn't eligible for VA assistance because my wife's income was above the regional and local "financial means threshold" and as a Priority 8, I wouldn't be allowed health care (as the VA had stopped taking Priority 8s in 2003).
I was in much pain and difficulty for the past couple of weeks and had nowhere to turn, so I called a Patient Advocate (who's name & number I'd read in a newspaper article) and she said that if we had deducted our medical expenses and health care COBRA premiums for 2007, that there was a 'chance' that I might squeak below the threshold.
The ER doctors said that they weren't concerned with the paperwork aspect of saving my live. After treatment in the ER. I was sent for a CAT Scan with some dye injected in my arm. After that test, I was sent to ECHO test lab and it was inconclusive due to my weight.
The next day, I was sent to T.E.E. (I can't remember what that stands for right now) and told that I would be required to gargle and swallow some throat numbing liquid and then I would be anethisized to sleep, while they pushed a tube down my throat to check out my heart and lungs.
Well, because of my weight, they decided that it was too dangerous to put me under for the procedure, so they had me gargle with 2 doses of numbing mouthwash and then they shoved this garden hose (with the nozzle still attached and the sprinkler system on) down my throat.
They moved it up, down, around, in & out and so deep that I thought they'd decided to examine my rectum from the inside. The whole while they were doing this, they told me that I couldn't move, cough, gag or try to talk. They moved the tube around for 46 minutes and when they'd finished, they said that I was the most well behaved patient they'd ever had (I told them to give me REP)
It turns out that the aortic heart valve that I had replaced in 2004 had a leak and they discoved a 2nd leak in my heart, causing the fluid in my lungs. They determined that another open heart surgery was too dangerous for me and are attemting to treat my leaky heart with medicine. They also discovered that my heart was weak and not beating strongly. That too is being treated with medicine.
My wife spent much time with the Patient Advocate and with her tireless help filling out the forms, re-submitting them to the Eligibilty Dept. and walking with my wife from office to office, they looked at the new figures and determied that I would be allowed coverage and placed in group Priority5.
I've been sent home and scheduled for upcoming appointments with the Cardiologist and a Primary Care physician.
I'm tired, but I want to try to address Big Truck's thread as soon as I'm able.
Thanks to all of you,
Doug
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