PUBLIC VIEWPOINT Nurses At Veterans Hospital Dedicated

I recently spent some time in the veterans hospital in Fayetteville. I’ve written about the hospital many times over the years.

I want to add some more.

I’ve heard some vets criticize the medical care at the VA. Certainly there are some areas that deserve criticism. All large organizations have problems. Hell, so do some small operations. And the VA is overwhelmed by casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.

I went through the emergency room to be admitted. Once started everything went fi ne. I was in a ward with other vets. Get a group of vets together and the BS factor increases 90 percent. Being in a hospital is not exactly a fun thing. In fact, it isdepressing. But the nurses on the ward were eft cient and the medical teams continue to smile and provide positive support.

I hate it when someone is happy when I’m miserable.

I want to just lie there and be sick. They won’t let you.

I was lying there watching the trial of Jodi Arias on TV. Other than basketball, it seemed to be the only other event covered. My situation changed suddenly. Nurses and aides surrounded my bed. They started moving things, including me. I was told I was going to the intensive care unit.

I was soon in ICU with tubes running out of every orifice of my body except my eyes. I had developed pneumonia. Oh, no. Please know, reader, that years ago I lost one of my ribsand part of my right lung.

The rest of my lungs are filled with Lucky Strikes, Camels, Marlboros, and ... you get the idea.

All the nurses in the VA are dedicated to their profession. The nurses in ICU are especially dedicated. They choose to work in ICU. I asked several of them why.

Their answers varied but basically because they liked treating the patients. One nurse’s answer really got to me. His father was an Oklahoma cowboy who fought in Vietnam.

He received the Purple Heart for getting a batch of shrapnel in his body.

Things were diff erent for vets back then. That combat veteran cowboy was denied treatment. He suff ered for years before the shrapnel startedmoving and caused his untimely death. Though I did not fight in Vietnam, I was in southeast Asia. I learned early on that not all of the vets who were casualties of the Vietnam War died in Vietnam. They gave everything they had, but Americans did not welcome them home.

And now? A young tech drew my blood. His arm had a tattoo. Two dog tags with names and info on each. His KIA buddies, one killed in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan, were memorialized on his arm. I read the tags and told him, “Welcome home, Marine and thanks for your ... for fi ghting.”

He smiled and said, “Thanks, man.”

BUDD SAUNDERS

ElkinsTaking issue with a column by an editor emeritus is risky at best, which I realize from having been in the business.

So let’s call what I have to say constructive criticism.

Roy Ockert, in my opinion, missed the mark in his March 5 analysis of how Arkansas can beef up its economy.

Any regular reader already knew the expected scholarship bonanza wouldn’t happen, and that even gamblers would slow down in a bad economy.

So, fewer dollars is not the big problem.

The column could have addressed what can or will be done about studentsdropping out or requiring remedial courses early in college and a true exposition would have asked why the bar was set so low for high schoolers (2.5 GPA) that it was inevitable many wouldn’t be able to cut it in college.

Another question the writer could have posed (but didn’t) was why everyone should aspire to college when blue collar jobs will still be needed to repair furnaces, cars and highways to name a few. A 2.5 might be very handy for that.

Since candidate Halter wants to give every “qualifying” student a college education, that’s just more fodder for a column.

PATRICK MCKELVEY

Bella Vista