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VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV - CNN.com

1,800 vets go to a Missouri VA hospital for dental work. Now, though, they have been sent letters that due to the staff not cleaning any of the instruments used these patients need to be tested for:

• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis C
• HIV

Thanks for serving. Have a potentially life-threatening disease on us.

GOD.

I was confused about how handwashing and then putting into the cleaning machine was all that bad before I read this other article that says that the tools weren't going into the cleaning machine to avoid damaging them.

Really really sad story.

The state of VA hospitals, I hear, is apparently abhorrent. Which is in the list of Saddest Things.

Man, I am glad my dad only goes to the VA for prescriptions, and eye exams. I could not fathom how angry I'd be if my 82 year old pops got HIV from a lazy dental technician.

seriously?? Why on earth would you NOT wash the instrument properly?

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have heard such a thing about VA hospitals. It's terrible.

My dad had to go to the VA hospital quite often when I was growing up (and sadly every now and than still) and I can not tell you how much I hate them. They almost killed my dad to many times to mention and they have bad attitudes they don;t care about any of the people they see and they automatically assume anyone who comes to them is a drug addict even if they have a broken hip or something.

How the fuck are stainless steel dental tools going to get damaged in an autoclave? How the fuck is handwashing shit easier than putting shit in an autoclave and pushing start? The logic behind this baffles my mind. If they get damaged in an autoclave, they're not sterile tools, and you CAN'T use them for medical practice. That's like federal law.

Chazwozel said:

How the fuck are stainless steel dental tools going to get damaged in an autoclave? How the fuck is handwashing shit easier than putting shit in an autoclave and pushing start? The logic behind this baffles my mind. If they get damaged in an autoclave, they're not sterile tools, and you CAN'T use them for medical practice. That's like federal law.

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Federal Law only applies to those not in the Federal Government.

As if our troops don't have enough to deal with. These news articles piss me the hell off!! The VA is a bunch of dicks. It's run by a bunch of dicks, and has a bunch of dicks as docs. My dad is a Vietnam vet and has been treated like shit at all the VA's he's been to. The waiting list is ridiculous. The treatment is sub-par. There needs to be a huge change in how they run things.

The VA here in the twin cities is great... I get the feeling it must be unique...

Not everyone in the VA sucks. Its not an easy position, especially when you know you could double your income in private practice, but if you did then a veteran would probably loose quality of life. The problem is that it gets its budget slashed instead of increased. This means that you end up getting less good doctors who do it for personal ethics/morals, and more doctors who do it because they aren't competent enough to work elsewhere (as seems to be the case here.) No excuse for these actions though, presumably someone will be loosing a medical license over this if not getting put in jail.

Just remember this story the next time someone talks about slashing the VA budget.

Edit: Ok, foot in mouthitis here. The VA budget has not only not been slashed, it has been massively increased since the beginning of the war. It has gone from ~50 in 2001 to 120 in 2011.

Espy said:

The VA here in the twin cities is great... I get the feeling it must be unique...

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Yeah, I've heard nothing but good things about the Milwaukee VA from my uncle.

I guess it's just my dad's experiences. He doesn't talk trash about them. He's too classy for that. His son on the other hand...

I'm a little knee-jerk on any topic that has to do with the troops. They get shafted too much by the govt. I should control my tongue/fingers more though.

Don't worry drawn, lots of VA hospitals have a bad rep, and probably far to often totally deserved. Of course lots of that is probably from poor funding.

drawn_inward said:

I guess it's just my dad's experiences. He doesn't talk trash about them. He's too classy for that. His son on the other hand...

I'm a little knee-jerk on any topic that has to do with the troops. They get shafted too much by the govt. I should control my tongue/fingers more though.

Click to expand...

don't be, I get very pissed too. The troops are doing a job that I can't do and doing a job that not many other people do, but I do hold them in highest respect and should be treated as such. Right now, they are fighting a war they are told to do by our ex-president (who started) and our current president (who I hope is trying to end it someday) they have to deal with inferior equipment (other articles about armor and weapons) poisonous sand and now medical??

with articles like this, the government wonder why people has such negative view on the federal government....hmmmm I wonder.

Fucking idiots.