Wounded warriors: Caregivers for wounded vets wait to get funds from VA
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Kevin Kammerdiener stands with his mother, Leslie, in November 2009. Ms. Kammerdiener has been providing daily 24-hour care for her son since a suicide bomber nearly killed him in Afghanistan in 2008.
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Leslie Kammerdiener is sick. And tired. And broke. And nearly broken.
The Clarion County native is suffering from the cumulative physical, emotional and financial toll of providing daily 24-hour care for her son, Army veteran Kevin Kammerdiener, since a suicide bomber nearly killed him in Afghanistan in 2008.
The divorced mother of two quit her job and moved from her native East Brady to be by his hospital bed and, upon his release, to be his primary caregiver during every step of his continuing treatment for a traumatic brain injury and burns.
Ms. Kammerdiener isn't complaining about her choice to care for her 22-year-old son herself instead of institutionalizing him in a Veterans Affairs Department facility.
But like thousands of family members caring for troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, she's been waiting for the VA to put in place measures mandated in a law to support caregivers that President Barack Obama signed in May.
PG INTERACTIVE
RELATED COVERAGE
THE SOLDIERSThe Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act required the VA by Jan. 31 to provide primary caregivers of post-9/11 veterans with a monthly stipend, medical insurance, training, counseling, and "respite care," or up to 30 days' time off during which a professional would care for the veteran.
The deadline came and went without those benefits being provided, and the VA has offered no timetable for following the law's dictates.
That has angered caregivers, veterans organizations and a bipartisan group of legislators.
"With each day of delay the strain from the sacrifices they make only grows," U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of primary caregivers.
Ms. Murray, chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and a bipartisan group of 17 other senators, sent a letter Feb. 7 to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki urging the agency to "quickly implement this vital law."
First Published February 20, 2011 12:00 am
