Behind the Walls of Ward 54 (treatment of vets at Walter Reed)

[MADem]

Politicians and celebrities -- like Dale Earnhardt Jr., ZZ Top and President Bush -- routinely visit the wounded at Walter Reed; but dignitaries don't come to Ward 54. When I first visited the lockdown unit in February 2004, it held around 35 patients, who slept as many as six patients to a room. Most patients stay in lockdown for just a few days, then are moved to rooms in hotel-like facilities to get treatment at the Walter Reed outpatient clinic, known as Ward 53. Within the lockdown unit, doors were kept open so that the patients who padded around the linoleum floors in Army-issued slippers, pajamas and robes could be observed at all times. Patients in various states of consciousness, from alert to near catatonic, sat around a television in a communal room. Some wore bandages from what other soldiers said were self-inflicted wounds. Patients were not allowed near the twin electric doors to Ward 54; these open by a buzzer from the nurses' station, staffed 24 hours a day.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/18/walter_reed/index1.html

This whole article is quite long, and disturbing to read. I'm glad, though, that SOMEONE is reporting this. America needs to understand what is happening to these servicemembers, and how poorly they are being cared for. It's worth the short hassle to get a site pass if you are not a subscriber.

[LynneSin]

1. They're overmedicated, forced to talk about their mothers instead of Iraq

.....and have to fight for disability pay. Traumatized combat vets say the Army is failing them, and after a year following more than a dozen soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, I believe them.

---

their mothers didn't force them to go to Iraq - Bush did.

This is total bushit!!

[MADem]

3. Yeah, it really is agonizing to read....

I only wish every chimp supporter would have their eyes taped open and forced to read every word. We are failing these kids. It's just wrong, and we can pay now, or pay later....

[indepat]

2. More neocon-style support for the troops

[libodem]

4. another sad causality of war

the living dead. Their broken shattered souls and minds may never recover from seeing and participating in the horrors of war. I currently take care of many World war two vets with extra pyramidal symptoms from years of Thorazine and haldol. Current favorites are Zyprexa and saraquel.