Top 10 News For Veterans from Around the Country 07-31-08

1. Peake Stresses Importance Of Wheelchair Games.
2. Korean Official Visits War Memorial In Massachusetts.  
3. VA Considering New Location For Louisiana Hospital.  
4. Coalition To Discuss Closure Of VA Nursing Home.   South Carolina Man Pleads Guilty In VA Benefits Theft Case.  
5. Huntington VAMC Honors Nurse.  
6. Air Force Hospital Develops Reputation For Saving Soldiers.  
7. Arkansas Veterans’ Committee Holds First Meeting.  
8. Heart Repair Patch Performs Well In Studies.  
9. DoD Study Will Examine Link Between TBIs, PTSD.  
10. Veterans Disability Bill That Overhauls The Claims Process Passes The US House.

     1.      Peake Stresses Importance Of Wheelchair Games.   Kansas City InfoZine (7/30, Miles) reported, "About 500 disabled veterans, including recently wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan," competed in the 28th National Veterans Wheelchair Games, which concluded Tuesday in Omaha, Nebraska. Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake, "who opened the competition July 25, called it a big part of the veterans’ rehabilitation and said the games provide ‘a therapeutic extension’ of the top-notch health care veterans receive in VA medical centers." 

2.      Korean Official Visits War Memorial In Massachusetts.   The Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette (7/31, Caywood) reports Yang Kim, South Korea’s minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, visited the Korean War Memorial in Worcester Tuesday. Kim’s visit "comes after a delegation of officials from the Korean War Memorial of Central Massachusetts committee traveled to Korea at the minister’s invitation last month." The Telegram & Gazette noted that unlike US Secretary of Veterans Affairs James B. Peake, "whose department only deals with men and women who served in the military," Kim’s "department also covers Korean civilians who resisted the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, as well as pro-democracy activists who fought to free the country from authoritarian rule in the 1960s, he said."

3.      VA Considering New Location For Louisiana Hospital.   The New Orleans Times-Picayune (7/31, Moran) reports, "Even as it forges ahead with plans to build a new hospital in downtown New Orleans," the US Department of Veterans Affairs "is considering an offer from a real estate company that wants to sell the vacant and deteriorating Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City. The company, Victory Real Estate Investments, assembled a vast tract of land after Hurricane Katrina with the idea of developing a strip of big-box stores of the sort that have long chosen the suburbs over the city proper. As part of that land-gathering," Victory "bought Lindy Boggs." The VA "said Wednesday that it would give Victory’s proposal serious consideration." The VA "continues to label" the downtown site as its preferred location for the new hospital.

4.      Coalition To Discuss Closure Of VA Nursing Home.   In continuing coverage, the Tri-City (WA) Herald (7/31) reports, "The Blue Mountains Veterans Coalition will meet Thursday in Walla Walla to discuss" a recent decision made by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The "meeting will be 1:30 p.m. in the theater of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center." Coalition members "organized the meeting in response to the VA’s closure of the Wainwright campus’s nursing home last week."

5.      South Carolina Man Pleads Guilty In VA Benefits Theft Case.   The AP (7/30) reported Michael Corbett, a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, "has pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing $44,900 in Veterans Affairs pension benefits." US Attorney Walt Wilkins "says US District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie has accepted the plea from…Corbett," who falsely "claimed to be a member of the Marine Corps." Corbett "faces a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine."

6.      Huntington VAMC Honors Nurse.   The fifth story in the Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch‘s (7/30, Lucas) "Community News" column noted that Rhonda Freeman, who works in the "GI suite and cardiac catherization lab" at Huntington Veterans Affairs Medical Center, "received the center’s newest award — Nurse of the Year."

7.      Air Force Hospital Develops Reputation For Saving Soldiers.   Fox Special Report (11/28, story 11, 2:45, Hume) broadcast, "An independent website that tracks US military losses in Iraq says the number of troops killed in combat this month is likely to be the lowest since the invasion back in 2003." The "way troops are treated after they’re injured is…a factor" in the decreased numbers. Fox said the Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad has "18 intensive care units," and the percentage of soldiers being saved by the facility "is impressive." Hospital Commander Col. Patrick Storms was shown saying, "Our survival rate for US casualties is 98 percent."

8.      Arkansas Veterans’ Committee Holds First Meeting.   The AP (7/30) reported Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe "says he hopes a newly-formed commission will find ways to make life at home easier for…veterans." On Tuesday, Beebe "spoke to members of the Arkansas Yellow Ribbon Task Force as it held its first meeting at the state Capitol. The governor named the 19-member group to develop recommendations on supporting" veterans. Beebe "says he hopes" committee discussions will lead to improvements in his state’s ability to respond to veterans’ needs. The Arkansas News (7/30, Moritz) published a similar story. 

9.      Heart Repair Patch Performs Well In Studies.   HealthDay (7/30, Edelson) reported, "A mesh patch designed to regenerate cardiac muscle damaged by a heart attack or heart failure has done well in animal studies and preliminary human trials. The patch is made of vicryl, a material used for suturing injured tissue that is later absorbed by the body, explained Jordan J. Lancaster, a predoctoral fellow" at the Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tucson. Lancaster "reported on the animal studies Wednesday at an American Heart Association meeting in Keystone, Colo." HealthDay added that a study intended "primarily to test the safety of the patch" on humans "was done last year by Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, chief of cardiac surgery at the University of Maryland. ‘We were very pleased,’ Griffith said of the trial."

10.    DoD Study Will Examine Link Between TBIs, PTSD.   On its website, WHAM-TV Rochester, NY (7/30) reported that the US Department of Defense recently "launched a new trial to allow doctors to study a potential link" between traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The hope of the national study "is to discover therapies that assist in total recovery for soldiers with PTSD and help them regain lost brain function."