Vet heard voices, sought help -- and was turned away?
After six sleepless nights, Blake Uddin knew he was in trouble.
He was hearing voices and feeling "clairvoyant." A sergeant in the Wisconsin National Guard with two tours of duty in Iraq, Uddin drove himself to the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, where he expected to be admitted.
Instead, after a two-hour exam, doctors said he was not a threat to himself or others, even though they called his Guard unit and suggested he not be allowed around weapons. He was told to come back the following week.
Four days later, with the voices now telling him, "Run ... run ... they're coming," he stole a car, crashed it and spent desperate minutes rushing across four lanes of morning rush-hour traffic. Footage from an overhead traffic camera shows him stepping in front of a semi-truck slowing to keep from striking him. Then he is hit by a van and thrown 50 feet into a ditch.
A psychologist who later examined him said Uddin was experiencing "an acute, significant, psychotic break." The psychologist took the unusual step of criticizing the VA for not admitting him or giving him medication and called the VA's lack of action "perplexing."
Read More: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/147...
Top Opinion
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Aingean 2012/04/15 20:07:48+3Why the hell didn't they admit him if they didn't have room they could have sent him to a psychiatric ward else where for monitoring for a few days just to be sure they weren't brushing off something serious, as is evident in this case it WAS SERIOUS. Not only could he have been kill others could have been. That would have been blood on their hands. He did the right thing admitted there was a problem and tried to get help.





















The fact is that the VA is very much underfunded .. understaffed ..
The VA Budget for Health Care was also robbed for the costs of ObieScare too ..
With FEW Facilities .. and I note that the article states he went from Wisconsin to MINNESOTA (a long drive indeed) to try to be seen/diagnosed ..
I know there's few BEDS available too ..
When I, service-connect go to the VA myself ..
And am told that to get immediate care for emergency needs that I need to rely on MY Private Health Care Insurance instead ..
This is a system in CRISIS .. thanks to the POSes who underfunded .. stole from it .. called the "Body Politic" ..
(Really .. the budget of VA is stretched beyond the breaking point .. has been that way for years).