Today, in my first and only visit to the Gainesville, Fl. Veteran's Hospital I received the care I that I have been waiting three years (and many many visits) to receive at the Veteran's Hospital in Washington, DC. Gainesville's facility is much cleaner, although it's old it doesn't smell like death, like DC's. Not to say that people don't die there. While I was picking up my prescription an in patient who just received surgery said that the man he shared a room with for several days died just this morning. I think the deficiency has more to do with the clientele of the two facilities. In DC the vast majority of patients are African-American, down here at Gainesville they are an actual minority. I talked to another Marine vet who took the words out of my mouth when he described a VA Hospital he use to go to. "They're trying to kill you so they don't have to deal with you anymore."
