My Walter Reed vacation

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been a bit slack in posting the past week or so. Well, I hadn’t planned on explaining it, but a good post grew out of it, so here goes.

I had some abdominal pain a few weeks ago and went to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to have it checked out. Even though, as a compensable disabled vet, I’m eligible to use the VA, I’ll tell you why I prefer WRAMC; they kept Strom Thurmond alive for 100 years and the year after he moved back to South Carolina, he died. So I figure the WRAMC staff knows stuff.

The staff at Walter Reed had me take a series of tests and scans trying to locate the problem, the last one being a CT scan last Thursday night. I was headed out the door Friday night to watch Aisha Tyler at the Improv here in DC when I got a call from the staff at Walter Reed who told me I needed to go the emergency room. Naturally, the first thing I thought of was 100-year-old Strom Thurmond, so I complied.

The first person I saw when I went in the hospital was a greeter. No shit – a real greeter in a maroon blazer and a smile (she was wearing pants, too, guys) who said “Hello, welcome to Walter Reed Army Medical Center”. I like that shit – honestly. I reported in to the Emergency Room, since it was after regular hospital hours and they started wheeling me around to get X-rays and stuff and whisked me away to Ward 65.

Let me tell you about Ward 65 – it’s like Hooters opened a hospital. Maybe it’s my age, but all of the nurses and doctors were gorgeous (well, except the few male doctors and nurses). They were friendly, yet professional – not something I would have expected after my time in the Army when all of the nurses looked like Frau Blucher and acted like Nurse Ratched. I was almost sorry to leave.

I had a flat screen TV (with Fox News Channel) and this remarkable bed that would automatically adjust to my bloated body every time I shifted to support my considerable weight. There was a guy who went room-to-room and took my meal order from a menu three times every day and personally brought my meal within 30 minutes of the time I posted my order. In the Army? Really?

Every medical person I had contact with from the X-Ray techs to the lowliest private vampire who came in the middle of the night to suck my blood out was professional and courteous. They did their job with a smile and a joke – more than what they “had” to do. Every. Single. One. It’s a sign of a professional staff and excellent leadership.

Yes, Walter Reed has suffered some public relations set backs recently on their out patient transient barracks which still gets mileage in the press and recently from “some people” on this blog. But I want to emphasize that there have NEVER been complaints about inpatient care – and, despite that, Walter Reed has gone the extra mile to improve the day-to-day conditions for the troops.

Personally, I’d like to commend, not only the staff in the emergency room and Ward 65, but also the commander, Major General Carla G. Hawley-Bowland and her sergeant major Command Sergeant Major James E. Diggs for making this an exceptional unplanned stay in their excellent facility. They’ve created a hospital that our troops deserve at the time the troops most need it.

I’m sure there’s room for improvement and I won’t argue with anyone who says so based on their recent experiences, but this post is based on a comparison of my stays this weekend and five years ago for another surgery.

Now, I know this post will generate a lot of “I hope you feel better”, and “Sorry to hear” comments. Thank you, but it’s really not necessary – that’s not why I wrote this post. I’ve been reading comments on here from “some people” on how poor military health care is, on the assembly line treatment for soldiers. I hope this post puts some of that to rest. I’ve never been treated better any where in any hospital – including some exclusive hospitals where I’ve had stays.

Category: Walter Reed