One Family's Fight For A Wounded Vet
This is part two of a series by CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin on Americans wounded in combat. Part 1 looked at the problems wounded vets face in getting physical therapy. In this piece, Martin looks at the sad tale of a wounded chaplain in Minneapolis who is battling bureaucracy as well as grievous injuries.
When Father Tim Vackoch said his first Mass, he was already in the Army Reserves. Twelve years later, he was in Iraq serving as an army chaplain.
Today, as CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin reports, he lies in the Veterans Administration hospital in Minneapolis. His brain is irreparably damaged by shrapnel from a roadside bomb. Doctors call his condition minimally responsive. But he is still very much the brother of Jeff Vackoch, who insists Tim is "there" in the inert figure in the bed.
"He's there. We know that. At what level he is there, no one knows," says Jeff.
Last November, Father Tim, as everybody calls him, was able to maneuver a motorized wheel chair. And with coaching, he could steer it around obstacles. But three weeks later, Jeff got what to him was shocking news from the VA.
"They actually pulled physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy from him last December," he says.
Other organizations that offer help to veterans:
The VA's stated reason?
"He's not making any more progress," Jeff says Tim's family was told.
It's a medical judgment that the Vackoch family, which finds cause for hope in things as little as thumb wrestling, has a hard time accepting.
"I just know that I see more potential in him than what I think they're giving him credit for," said Anita Brand, Tim's sister.
Father Tim's doctors say that after nine months of intensive therapy, he isn't getting any better — so the time has come to move him out of the VA hospital and into a nursing home.
"I do not want to see him warehoused," Brand says. She insists she's not overstating the issue by saying "warehoused."
"That's the way a lot of people see it," Brand said. "When I think of sending him to a nursing home, that's what I think of."
The VA went over Father Tim's medical files with CBS News after the family signed a privacy release. The VA says it simply makes no sense to continue a course of treatment that is not producing results.
As Martin summarizes it, the VA's point of view is if you've got a limited number of therapists and you've got a growing population of …
"Trauma victims," says Brand, filling in the word.
"You have to make hard decisions," says Martin.
"Right. I understand that," says Brand
"And your brother …"
"Is one of them, one of the hard decisions," she says.
Father Tim requires so much care that so far, no nursing home will take him. He could remain at the VA hospital indefinitely — relying on family and friends for loving but amateur therapy.
"I don't know if he can ever come back. But you know, we can't give up either," Jeff says.
Has the VA given up on his brother? He thinks so.
"Other than the medical care which you'd have to provide to keep somebody alive, I think they've given up," he says.
Not entirely, reports Martin. The VA has resumed some therapy, trying to teach Father Tim how to swallow again. In his world, that counts as progress.