[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5371]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              WALTER REED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about 
the conditions that we have been hearing about on the care of our 
veterans at Walter Reed Outpatient Care.
  Walter Reed is the first stop for many of our brave men and women 
returning from Iraq. These soldiers risked their lives defending this 
great Nation. They have lost friends in combat, and they have seen 
countless comrades lose limbs and suffer horrible wounds. They expect 
no reward in return for their bravery.
  Unfortunately, the treatment they have received when entering the 
outpatient care is substandard. Conditions at Walter Reed Building 18, 
even though they are being improved today, should have never gotten to 
that condition.
  We have all read reports on the matter; so I will not go into all of 
the details.
  Mr. Speaker, if these conditions existed in the public, the 
authorities would have quickly been notified. However, the 
mismanagement of care does not end with Building 18. Many of our 
veterans are lost in the system once they are transferred to the 
outpatient care. Case files are being lost. Head trauma victims are not 
receiving the level of managed care they require. Non-English-speaking 
families are left to navigate through the red tape that exists at 
Walter Reed and, I am sure, many other veterans' hospitals.
  The management at Walter Reed is directly responsible for these 
conditions, and I know those are changing now. But, again, we must make 
sure this does not happen again.
  Congress has the ability to improve the situation for our new 
veterans. We are all aware of the benefits of health information 
technology. Health IT allows patients to move throughout the health 
care system in an easy manner. If Health IT was implemented at Walter 
Reed, our veterans would be able to move from inpatient to outpatient 
care without the fear that their records would be lost. The benefits 
our veterans would receive if health IT is implemented far outreach the 
cost of the system.
  Many of our Iraqi veterans are coming home with head injuries. 
Roadside bombs and IEDs are responsible for this increase. These 
veterans require constant care and supervision. Many of them have lost 
cognitive abilities. In some of the worst cases, veterans are barely 
aware of their surroundings.
  Let me say this: I know a lot about head injuries. Going back 13 
years ago, my son was shot in the head, received traumatic head 
injuries, and he was left partially paralyzed. We were lucky. His mom 
was a nurse. She knew how to go through the system. He was also lucky 
that I had training in physical therapy. People understand, he was only 
26 at that time, as many of our soldiers that are injured. They don't 
need just 3 hours of physical therapy a day; they need 4 in the 
morning, 4 in the afternoon, and then they need their families around 
them to take care of them in the evening time. It is hard. It is 
difficult work. But I know our young men and women are able to do this. 
The families need to be trained on how to work with their children that 
have head trauma.
  But, again, it is up to us here in Congress, and I know there are 
hearings, but we must come up with answers on giving the treatment to 
these veterans with head injuries and to all our veterans that go 
through Walter Reed.
  You cannot expect someone to go onto the campus and think that they 
are going to remember that they have an appointment the next day. You 
can't expect them to understand even sometimes where they are at that 
particular moment.
  This has been treatment that we know how to give, and why we haven't 
given it to them I do not understand.
  I know that Walter Reed is one of the best hospitals in the Nation, 
as long as you are in the hospital. But when you come out, that is 
where we are losing our veterans through the cracks. It is 
unacceptable, and we in Congress have a responsibility to make sure it 
doesn't happen.
  During the Vietnam War, our military came home, and, unfortunately, 
we did not honor them the way they should have been honored. I thought 
we had learned our lesson.
  The brave young men and women representing this country have done a 
wonderful job, and for us to even let down any kind of health care 
treatment for them is a black mark on this Congress and certainly on 
us, the United States of America.
  I know the President has put a commission in place. I have been 
around here long enough to know, enough commissions. We need action. We 
can do it. That is what we are very good at, getting down to the bottom 
of it and putting in action. We can't have these veterans wait any 
longer.
  Let me say this: Every day, Members of Congress get on the floor and 
say what a wonderful job our men and women are doing. Every day we 
honor them. And yet all of us have let them down. That is not 
acceptable. I hope that we will do better in the future. The future has 
to be now. The time has to be now. We cannot wait 2 to 3 to 4 months 
for a commission report.

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