VA Offered Doctor’s Appointment For Veteran Two Years After He Died

President Barack Obama nominates former Procter and Gamble executive Robert McDonald as the next Veterans Affairs secretary as he makes a statement at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, Monday, June 30... President Barack Obama nominates former Procter and Gamble executive Robert McDonald as the next Veterans Affairs secretary as he makes a statement at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2014. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald would succeed Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star general who resigned last month as the scope of the issues at veterans' hospitals became apparent. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) MORE LESS
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The Department of Veterans Affairs, already embroiled in controversy over health care for veterans, reportedly sent a letter recently that offered a doctor’s appointment for a Vietnam veteran who had died two years earlier.

WBZ in Boston reported that Susan Chase, whose husband Doug served in Vietnam, received a letter two weeks ago from her local VA hospital telling Doug he could now schedule an appointment with a primary care doctor. But Doug died in the summer of 2012 of a brain tumor.

Chase told WBZ that she had tried to get her husband care at the hospital in Bedford, Mass., in 2012 after he was diagnosed with the tumor in 2011. But, she said, she never heard back until now.

“It was addressed to my husband and I opened it. I was in complete disbelief,” she said. “It was 22 months too late, I kind of thought I was in the twilight zone when I opened this letter and read it.”

Chase also said that she had been denied funeral benefits by the VA — because Doug was never treated at a VA hospital.

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