Wounded soldiers and veterans poured out their frustrations Saturday with the military health-care system. They told a presidential commission about difficulty getting care because military doctors were overwhelmed by the needs of service members injured in Iraq.Speaking from experience, the soldiers and veterans described the military health-care system as a labyrinth, said their families had been swamped with paperwork and said care providers lacked compassion. Marc A. Giammatteo, who has undergone more than 30 operations to repair a leg torn apart by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, said the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington had been overwhelmed with wounded members of the armed forces. Giammatteo, a West Point graduate and former Army captain, said he had observed a “lack of caring or compassion in some of the work force” at Walter Reed.
“On several occasions,” Giammatteo said, “I, and others I have spoken to, felt that we were being judged as if we chose our nation’s foreign policy and, as a result, received little if any assistance. Some individuals, most of whom are civilian workers and do not wear the uniform, judge the wounded unfairly and treat them similarly, adopting a ‘Can’t help you, you’re on your own’ attitude.”
Giammatteo, a member of the commission, testified at the first meeting of the panel on Saturday. President Bush created the nine-member panel March 6 to investigate the care that wounded troops received when they return from the battlefield. Former Sen. Bob Dole, a Republican, and Donna E. Shalala, who was secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration, are leading the panel.
Dole said that military medicine had made great strides since he was wounded in action in Italy on April 14, 1945. Of the commission’s work, he said: “This is not going to be a witch hunt or a whitewash.” The panel plans to hold several hearings across the country and is supposed to issue its report, with recommendations, by June 30.