A disabled Texas Marine's fight for care amid VA shake-up
Marine veteran James Carey's life changed forever 15 years ago when a training exercise at Camp Pendleton left him with a traumatic brain injury. Now 38, Carey is blind, unable to use his body, and suffers from dementia.
For years, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provided Carey with a homecare worker around the clock. But in January, the VA abruptly cut his homecare hours from 168 a week to 16, citing a clerical error. The 24/7 care he had been receiving was deemed a mistake.
"I think that that's pretty hurtful because honestly, they're directly affecting my caregivers I rely on so much," James Carey said.
The disabled veteran's mother, Kim Carey, has been his primary caregiver, but she said she can't do it all on her own.
"Most of the time, it takes two people. And if I don't get someone else to help me, I'm doing all of it around the clock," she said.
The VA denied James Carey's appeal, suggesting that he could go to a VA medical foster home or a VA nursing home if he needed more hours of care.
"That is such an insult to me," an emotional Kim Carey said. "I promised my son that I would take care of him the rest of his life and I am not going to put him in a home."
While the VA told the CBS News Texas I-Team that James Carey's situation is unique and is not part of any larger plan to reduce expenses, it comes amid a major shake-up at the department. VA Secretary Doug Collins announced
plans last month to make the VA more efficient with the help of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency
. Part of this plan includes cutting 83,000 VA jobs, more than 15% of the agency's staffing.
"The federal government does not exist to employ people; it exists to serve people. At the VA, we are focused on serving veterans better than ever before," Collins said in a video on March 5.
Veteran advocate Brandon Friedman, who has been fighting for veterans for nearly 20 years, finds the proposed cuts troubling.
"While you can say that all of those 83,000 cuts aren't coming from doctors and nurses, they're coming from other people. Well, the doctors and nurses need those people to do their jobs and to do their jobs efficiently," Friedman, who works with the organization
VoteVets.org
, explains.
Friedman believes that stories like James Carey's erode confidence in the VA's ability to operate effectively.
"This guy sacrificed the better part of his life for this country. And you're going to quibble over some paltry dollar amounts or hours that he's being taken care of, like - just take care of the guy," he said.
Congressman Pat Fallon, whose office is working with the VA to find a solution for Carey's situation, stated, "American veterans and their families should not have to be subject to bureaucratic incompetence and arbitrarily enforced rulings. We need accountability from the VA, particularly when it comes to fulfilling its obligation to serve disabled veterans."
In the meantime, the Carey family is handling the sudden change in homecare hours by chipping in. James Carey's siblings have taken extended leave from work to help, and his nephew, who is in high school, comes over to assist. However, they acknowledge that this is not a sustainable long-term solution.
"This is our loved one. And we have to accept the fact that he is in this condition in the first place. Why do we have to keep paying that price every day?" a frustrated Kim Carey asks. "Why do we have to beg the VA to give him the benefits he earned?
"
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Brings Back Hundreds of CDC Staffers it Previously Fired
The Trump administration is reversing its decision to fire hundreds of staffers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a humiliating about-turn. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told STAT that the CDC will be bringing back more than 450 employees that were fired in an attempt to reorganize the agency. Some of the departments that will be reinstating employees are: The National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the Global Health Center; the National Center for Environmental Health; the Immediate Office of the Director. These divisions helped track and prevent HIV, prevent lead poisoning in children, as well as ensure that cruise lines were safe from disease. HHS, which also oversees the CDC, first announced this 'dramatic restructuring' in March, saying that they would downsize from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees, claiming that it would 'save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.' The department also revealed that it would be creating a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), which would be led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,' Kennedy said. 'This Department will do more—a lot more—at a lower cost to the taxpayer,' he claimed. He reaffirmed this sentiment in an X post in March, noting that these cuts would help eliminate the current 'alphabet soup of departments.' 'We are streamlining HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective. We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments,' he said. As a result, around 10,000 employees were fired under the guidance of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Yet Kennedy has already backtracked on these sweeping federal layoffs, admitting in April that too many cuts were made in the effort to 'Make America Healthy Again,' though he said that 'was always the plan.' 'We're streamlining the agencies. We're going to make it work for public health, make it work for the American people. In the course of that, there were a number of instances where studies that should have not have been cut were cut, and we've reinstated them,' Kennedy said. 'Personnel that should not have been cut were cut—we're reinstating them, and that was always the plan,' he stated.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How can outdoor workers beat the heat this summer? Local doctor reacts
PRINCETON, WV (WVNS) – Summer time might be a fun time, but it can also be a dangerous one. As the summer heat returns, so do heat-related illnesses. This can be a problem for any American that needs to be outside for their job. And issues can set in very quickly if precautions are not made. If someone is working on a roof, specifically metal or shingles, you're going to get a lot of heat reflected or absorbed in that immediate environment especially if it's a low wind day. That can even be in less than a couple of hours.' Dr. Steven Stafancic with Princeton Community Hospital In 2022 alone, a little over 30 percent of American employees had regular outdoor exposure. This is according to a study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tree falls on cars at West Virginia State Capitol Steven Lamontagne is a landscaper who runs a business out of Rainelle. He said the summer work schedule is the most difficult on the calendar. You got so many people wanting stuff done. Everyone wants it done at the beginning of summer and you just have to do it job-by-job. Especially for seeding and stuff like that, people want their lawn seeded and want to be able to cut it during the summertime.' Steven Lamontagne, Landscaper with PMG Solutions So what can you do to beat the heat? It is recommended you take plenty of breaks and pay attention if you feel something wrong. West Virginia Cancer Registry gains national recognition It is also recommended to have plenty of electrolytes nearby. Every provider has their rule of thumb. Some people say a bottle of water to a bottle of Gatorade. Some people say mixing a bottle of Gatorade and that's okay to drink. In my experience, if people do electrolyte-containing fluid, it gives them more energy and stamina during the day.' Dr. Steven Stafancic with Princeton Community Hospital Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Special report: A twist on capitalism
Editor's note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the price of freedom, by exploring the work and experience of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Deseret News Opinion Editor Jay Evensen has known Yunus since 1997, when the world leader first visited Utah. Evensen traveled to Dhaka to speak again with Yunus, entrepreneurs, politicians in the country, and even revolutionaries seeking change to understand the risks Yunus is enduring and why peace and opportunity in Bangladesh are so important to the United States. DHAKA, BANGLADESH — It probably wouldn't take any American long to notice that the nursing college on the outskirts of this sprawling city operates differently than one would in the United States. The students are dressed in uniforms – blue dresses and head scarves in the official green shade of the Bangladeshi flag for the women, and blue checkered button-down shirts and dark slacks for the men. When I walk into a classroom with Deseret News photographer Scott Winterton and Salt Lake general surgeon Scott Leckman, the 30 or so students immediately stop what they are doing and stand at attention by their desks, facing us with a rapt gaze seldom seen in distraction-laden 21st century American colleges. But the important differences are more subtle. This is the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing. It is meant to meet a desperate need in this impoverished country as much as to train bright young students. It is, as Vice Principal Kazi Shahina explained to us in a briefing before we entered the class, an enterprise designed to become an internationally regarded nursing college in a nation where 'nursing is not seen as an honorable profession.' Why is nursing not honored? Maybe it's because, as the World Bank reports, this country has only 0.6 nurses available for every 1,000 people, and average people seldom encounter one. (The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Utah has 7.26 per 1,000.) Maybe it's because of old fears generated by a largely unregulated health care industry that allows pharmacies to operate despite dispensing expired or ineffective medicines. Maybe it's because of a lack of effective training. Regardless, the effects of this lack of trust are manifest by a statistic we were given earlier in the day — 27% of those who die in Bangladesh each year do so without receiving any medical care. More than just a nursing college, Grameen Caledonian is a 'social business.' Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the current interim leader of Bangladesh, pioneered the concept of businesses that compete in a free market but whose aim is to solve a social need, not to generate profits for investors. Social businesses do indeed seek investors, but with the understanding that they stand to recoup their investments, plus an administrative fee, and nothing more. Nothing, that is, except the feeling that comes from making life better for people. An unofficial estimate by the British Council, Britain's organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, said there may be 150,000 various social enterprises underway in Bangladesh. Many more exist in other nations. Exact numbers are hard to find. Elevating a social good over pure profits cuts against the core motivation behind American business and the idea that market needs can best be solved when consumers gain and entrepreneurs profit. Still, I can't help wonder — what if a business were created with the sole intent to save the Great Salt Lake, or to solve homelessness, heart disease or obesity? What if all the profits were dedicated to solving an urgent need that benefitted all? Would Americans, even in the bootstrap culture of the West, rally to the idea? In one such venture, Yunus partnered with Danone Yogurt to both provide needed nutrition and create employment opportunities. The result was a yogurt rich with the iron, zinc, vitamin A and iodine that was missing in the lives of many impoverished Bangladeshis. 'I have a choice,' Yunus, speaking in general terms about human motivations, told me in an interview, 'whether I become the richest man in the whole world, or I can change the whole world. 'Why should I be just the richest person? (Then), nobody cares for me. (Instead), I could change the whole world, and people would think, 'He's a great guy.'' Capitalism, he said, talks about choices, but the profits-above-everything version of it never grants the choice to pursue something other than money. Yunus reacts strongly when I press him on the notion, made popular by economists such as Milton Friedman, that all people are motivated by greed. 'That's absolutely wrong,' he said. 'If you take the worst part of it, humans are made up of both selfishness and unselfishness.' People need to discover how much of each part is in them. Maybe you are 99% selfish and 1% unselfish, he said, but being even just that much unselfish ultimately may influence your selfish part. 'Society's responsibility is to open the door for everybody so they can explore themselves,' Yunus said. 'Education's purpose should be to find out who you are. What do you want to do with yourself? That's the question that should be planted in our education system. 'Contributing to the world is a self-discovery.' It's clear which choice he believes most people would make after such self-discovery. Our social business tour includes presentations by Shukhee, a new startup that aims to provide quality health care to all Bangladeshis, including those in hard-to-reach rural areas. The CEO, Dr. Ahmed Atmaan Siddiqui, explains how Shukhee, Bangla for 'happy,' includes a smartphone app that gives people instant access to one of several qualified physicians working in a call center. People without smartphone access can contact these doctors via regular landline phones. A consultation costs the equivalent of 15 cents. Shukhee hopes to set up reputable pharmacies nationwide, bringing every Bangladeshi within two kilometers of one. The optimism of Shukhee's leaders is infectious. We watch as doctors answer calls. We watch humorous television commercials aimed at Bangladeshis who may be inclined to self-diagnose over the internet rather than seek out a physician. Social businesses often seek partnerships with established companies to help them succeed. The nursing school, for instance, has an agreement with Glasgow Caledonian University aimed at producing nurses and midwives using up-to-date curriculum and professional staff. There are signs that big things are in the works. Next to the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing is the foundation of a building the college hopes will become a hospital and medical school, allowing the training of medical students and giving nursing students real human patients, rather than the plastic human-like figures that currently occupy beds. Back in the classroom, a young man has raised his hand in answer to our question about what he hopes to get from the program. He stands at attention next to his desk and explains how he desires a master's degree and would like to study in the United States before coming back to Bangladesh to serve. Others have opinions but are too shy to speak, obviously worried about their English. Many are from rural areas and are learning English for the first time as they study. This alone — the idea of low-income, rural young people gaining education and skills — seems justification enough for the social business concept. In his book, 'A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions,' Yunus explains how 'many experts around the world insisted that his social business concept would fail because entrepreneurship is a rare quality in people – and even rarer in poor people, and extremely rare among poor women.' 'I took the reverse position — that all human beings are entrepreneurs, with no exceptions, men or women, rural or urban, rich or poor,' he wrote. It's a theme he hits hard in my interview with him, as he has previous times we have met. If it is true, and if enough people embrace it, it could change the world.
