VA Forces Terminally Ill Disabled Veteran to Move to Another State for Life-Saving Transplant Surgery

We’ve all heard the horror stories about the incompetency of the Veterans Administration. President Trump is fully aware of the ineptness of the VA and very recently “created an office at Department of Veterans Affairs to improve accountability” and protect whistleblowers. He added, “…we will never, ever tolerate substandard care for our great veterans.”

Unfortunately, our government bureaucracy moves slowly and while President Obama and Eric Holder were spending more time seeing how they could flood our country with refugees from the Mideast and robbing American taxpayers to support illegal aliens, another one of our valuable American heroes and his family are being subjected to the VA’s inadequacy.

This is the story of Air Force veteran, David Brayton, of Southern California, who is disabled and terminally ill until a successful transplant is completed. Right now his lungs are hardening and he will suffocate if he does not receive a double lung transplant very soon.

BACKGROUND

In December of 2015, the VA diagnosed David with “end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.” David’s wife, Courtney, has been petitioning the VA for over a year for the transplant surgery to be done locally, because there are only two hospitals in the country who are contracted with the government to perform lung transplants for veterans.

Recently, Courtney was told by an administrator at the Greater Los Angeles VA, that she would do everything she could to make sure David could have the surgery locally. Unfortunately, Ann Brown, Director of the GLA VA, who has decision-making authority, has now refused direct communication from Courtney. At this time, the Braytons are receiving calls from the Seattle hospital to schedule David’s processing and medical transport to Seattle, which means Ms. Brown has not approved the local transplant. Ms. Brown still won’t return phone calls and is “unavailable” when Courtney calls her.

David and Courtney live in Southern California where there are two local hospitals who are equipped to do the transplant when the organs become available—Cedars Sinai and UCLA. The problem is that they are not contracted with the government. President Trump has said he wants the veterans to go to any hospital they want; unfortunately, that has not happened yet.

In the meantime, the VA has told them they will have to leave their home by this Saturday, May 6, and move to Seattle to hospitalize David at one of the National Transplant Centers (NTC). He’s not even on the transplant list yet and will need to remain there until a donor match is made.

Courtney asked her congressman, Steve Knight, for help. He, in turn, contacted the Greater Los Angeles VA Director, Ann Brown, only to receive a response back stating that David is not eligible to receive care at a non-VA facility because there are only two VA hospitals in the country who will do the transplant for him. Their heads and hearts are made of stone.

What will the Braytons lives look like if they are forced to move to Seattle this Saturday, May 6, 2017?

WHILE IN SEATTLE:

  • The Braytons could be gone for months or years on end.
  • Courtney and David have to maintain a small business they have in California. (Presently, their 16-year-old son is helping her manage it while David is in an incapacitated state. She will have to hire someone to do what she does).
  • The VA will provide an extended stay for them while in Seattle, but not their son. David will need 24/7 care in Seattle both before and after the surgery, which the VA doesn’t provide.
  • How will their mortgage on their California home and other expenses of their household be paid while they are in Seattle?
  • Who will take care of her son while they are in Seattle? He’s still in high school.

The VA does not pay for loss of income, mortgage/rent of home while being away. The Braytons will need an additional care person to cover gaps (grocery trips, personal care, doctors appointments for primary caregiver, etc.) or food and personal care items.

Taxi service in Seattle will be provided before and after the surgery, but David always has to have five oxygen tanks with him. Will a taxi company even allow that much oxygen in their vehicles—because the airlines won’t?

URGENT CALL TO ACTION:

By taking 15 minutes ASAP to make contact with the government officials listed below via Facebook, Twitter or email to lodge an URGENT request to authorize David’s transplant surgery locally, you will not only be helping to save David’s life, and hopefully we can help save the lives of other heroic Americans.

You can follow the progress and be notified of updates regarding Veteran Brayton via Facebook at David B Transplant

President Donald J. Trump

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Twitter: @realDonaldJTrump

Vice President Michael R. Pence

Twitter: @VP

David Shulkin, M.D.

Secretary of Veteran Affairs

Email: david.shulkin@va.gov

Twitter: @SecShulkin

Phone: 202-461-4800

Dr. Poonam Alaigh

Acting Under Secretary of Veteran Affairs

Email: Poonam.alaigh@va.gov

Twitter: @DeptVetAffairs

Ann Brown

Greater Los Angeles VA Director

Email: ann.brown@va.gov

Phone: 310-478-3711

Scott Blackburn

Deputy Secretary of the VA

Email: scott.blackburn@va.gov

Keep in mind—everyone needing a transplant is waiting for someone to die. Please pray for the families who might lose a family member and give thanks for their willingness to take part in our nation’s transplant program.

Here is NBC’s coverage of David’s heartbreaking fight.

Lainie Sloane

Lainie Sloane started her grassroots political activism as a Teen Age Republican (TAR) when she was 14 years old, helping her local College Republicans. In addition to serving on various local and state campaign committees and managing GOP Campaign Headquarters for two presidential elections, Lainie was awarded an Indiana Honorary Indiana Secretary of State for her extraordinary leadership skills and dedication to maintaining our freedoms. After she married Los Angeles native and former entertainer, J.P. Sloane, Lainie worked in management at Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Animation and assisted in the development and start-up of a retro record label with Dick Clark Productions and Brown Sugar Productions. Recently, her political activities consisted of being on the leadership team for California Assemblyman Tim Donnelly's gubernatorial campaign and co-hosted a Blog Talk Radio Show, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. She resides in Southern California with her husband, Dr. J.P. Sloane and their daughter, Shannon Sloane, where she is a music publishing business consultant and works as an insurance broker and assists her husband, Dr. Sloane, in the final editing stages of his book, The God of the Bible Is Not Allah, a condensed three-volume course exposing Islam, including select surahs from the Koran in a parallel Bible-Koran format. Lainie can be contacted at Facebook.com/LainieSloane and on Twitter @LainieSGP.

Related Articles

Back to top button
Close
Close

Please disable ad blocker.

We work hard to write our articles and provide you with the content you enjoy. The ads on the site allow us to continue our work while feeding our families. If you'd please whitelist our site in your ad blocker or remove your ad blocker altogether, we'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you!