A woman’s shocking photo showing her veteran brother waiting ‘eight hours’ for treatment at a Tennessee Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center has gone viral.
Gail Hobbs shared the image of Tony Mims lying on the floor at the Alvin C. York Campus of the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, located in Murfreesboro, when he went there for treatment on Thursday.
‘[The doctor] wasn’t sure if he was sick enough to be admitted to hospital,’ she wrote, before telling Fox 17 News that he was ultimately diagnosed with pneumonia.
Hobbs wrote that they ‘waited 8 hours for them to put him in a bed,’ noting that ‘he can’t even walk’ and that ‘he deserves better treatment[,] he served his country.’
Hobbs told Fox that she took Mims to the hospital on Thursday, where he first had blood work and a urine sample taken.’
Mims said he was feeling unwell but the doctor said he was ‘OK’. He then sent Mims to have an MRI taken.
Following the MRI test, Mims was left to wait in a room without a bed, Hobbs said, at which point she asked multiple times for a bed so Mims could lay down.
She said her request was denied, however, by the doctor who told her that Mims was not going to be admitted as an inpatient because he was not sick, so he could not have a bed.
While in that room, Mims became cold and asked nurses for a blanket, which they promptly brought to him, Hobbs said.
Then, he asked Hobbs to help him lay down because he was tired, which Hobbs started to do, but said Mims passed out before reaching the floor, and that’s when she took the photo of him on the ground.
Hobbs told Fox that the nurses came to Mims’ aid right away after he was found to be on the floor, adding that ‘the nurses were wonderful.’
It wasn’t until the next day that another doctor at the hospital diagnosed Mims with pneumonia, ‘by a simple swab of the nose,’ Hobbs said.
Hobbs said she blames the doctor that Mims saw on Thursday for the improper care she said her brother received at that time.
‘I don’t blame the VA, Hobbs said. ‘The VA has a long way to go to be perfect, like everyone, but you can’t lump everything together.’
The Murfreesboro facility said ‘the facts are much different than what’s presented in the Facebook post,’ focusing on how long Mims spent on the floor.
No comment was made regarding the eight hour wait for a bed, or the fact that Mims was ultimately admitted as an inpatient and diagnosed with pneumonia by a second doctor on Friday.
The center’s full statement to Fox reads as follows:
‘As soon as we learned of this photo on Friday night, we immediately reviewed the Veteran’s medical record and have since spoken to the Veteran personally. Our review determined that the facts are much different than what’s presented in the Facebook post.
‘Tony Mims was admitted to VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System August 2, the day the photo was taken. During a ten-minute wait for his provider to return to his exam room, Mims said that his sister, who had accompanied him to his appointment, helped him move to the floor of the exam room because he was tired. Mr. Mims estimated he was on the floor about ten minutes before a provider returned.
‘Mims is now an inpatient in our facility and he is being well taken care of. Our medical center director has visited the patient and has his assurance that he received good care and has no complaints.’
Hobbs, who has been caring for Mims since April, said she hopes to have him placed in a nursing home by the end of the week.
Vet, you are no more special than any other American national, actually they probably consider you vets lower than just us regular folk out here not stupid enough to be duped into killing other people’s of the world for profit. I’m not buying the excuse anymore that the info. wasn’t available for folks way back when to know exactly what the wars were over, profit, period. General Smedley Butler warned Americans way back.
Just keep glorifying the military and the poor treatment of the vets, some folks still believe the lie.
It doesn’t matter to me what his history is, but to see an elder on the floor like that is plain wrong. What the hell is wrong with those people?!! There was a time when healthcare sparkled with compassion and a sense of urgency in making the patient well. How far we’ve moved from that, from actually caring. Money drives it all now. I found this dehumanizing and horribly sad. Damn!!!
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This photograph is enough to make me go postal!!! The gawd dam veterans admin!!!!My Government poisoned myself….and one-million Marines and their families…..at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, from 1953 to 1988. I live across the street from the Somali Army in Lewiston Maine . While I get NO COMPENSATION for being poisoned, the Somali’s ALL get FREE CARS, FREE FOOD, FREE HOUSING…..THE LEWISTON POLICE PROTECT THEM…….I mean…we as Americans NEVER got this treatment from our Government..
I’d rather die a broke-Marine WITH MORALS than to die with all the toys that this Satanic Government hands out.
Semper Fi….fight or die.
A close friend of mine that I grew up with was one of the victims of the poisoning at Camp Lejeune. His children were born with deformities, nothing real major, deformed toes, no toenails, and this was connected to the poison water they knew he had drank at Camp Lejeune.
The Veterans Administration’s response has been, “F#@k you, Marine, there will be no redress for your grievance.” This is their thank you for his service in this corporate NATO military force. They do not give a shit and never will give a shit about the general issue human beings they harm through shit like this. Everybody knows it happened and everybody knows it’s tough shit.
One of these days the Marine Corp may start acting like the Marine Corp again. If there is one group who should not be standing for this international treachery, it is the Marines, who now must hang their heads in shame because they failed in protecting their brothers and sisters from the domestic enemy that wants to kill us all.
Who knows, maybe pride will catch back up with them and they will play a crucial part in the paybacks.
Henry, I think you’re right about the Marines…they haven’t acted in the way they espouse since Smedley Butler ran the show…and that’s a long time ago.
This treatment by someone who has taken the vow to do no harm, is inexcusable. I truly hope that the “doctor” loses his license over this.
Tax dollars at work?