A month and a half after hurricane Maria, the VA Caribbean
Healthcare system is delivering care in unconventional ways. And it's
helping veterans whose PTSD was triggered by the storm.
Every morning now, staff from the main VA hospital in San Juan hit the road.
The
Department of Veterans Affairs knows that many of its patients had
their lives so thoroughly disrupted by Hurricane Maria that they haven't
been able to come in for treatment. So it's checking its records to see
which ones haven't been in recently, and it's sending nurses and
medical social workers like Eduardo Vicinty-Santini out to see them.
On
a recent day, he checked on retired Army Master Sergeant Luciano
Sevilla-Rivera, who lives alone except for his tiny dog Papito in a
small retirement community in the mountains an hour southeast of San
Juan.
"Do you have any other relatives that look after you?" Vincinty-Santini asked the 72-year-old Vietnam veteran.
Like
many VA patients, Sevilla-Rivera responded that he's pretty much on his
own. He recently lost his mother, who was his only relative in Puerto
Rico.
He said his isolation, as well as the trauma of going
through the Category 4 hurricane, triggered Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder.
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