That day, he became one of more than 50,000 soldiers who have been seriously injured in Iraq since the war began. Psoinos, like many other soldiers, was hit by a roadside bomb, which left him with wounds in his leg, arm, shoulder and head.
The former Shelby man spent the next 15 months stateside, receiving treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. About 45 days of that time Psoinos spent in the actual hospital, where he said the care from doctors and nurses was incomparable.
“Everything kind of goes to crap when you leave the hospital,” he said.
Psoinos, who eventually retired from the Army as a captain, was assigned to the Medical Holding Co., an effort by the military to re-create the structure of a military unit for wounded soldiers. Soldiers assigned to Med Hold continue to receive outpatient treatment, but are often expected to work within the unit, as well.
“I couldn't really work because of my injuries, but they did all they could to make me work,” Psoinos said Thursday at Community Medical Center, where he was part of an appearance by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who is co-sponsor of a bill that aims to improve rural health care for veterans. “They care about Army policy and they don't spend much time worrying about your health care.”
As an example, Psoinos recalled the day a staff member dressed down a man with a severe brain injury because he had on the wrong uniform.
“That sort of thing wasn't uncommon,” he said. “That's not what you need when you're trying to recover from an injury.”
And it's precisely the sort of treatment uncovered by a four-month investigation by the Washington Post of the conditions in the outpatient program at Walter Reed. The Post's series, which ran earlier this year, found rancid conditions in the barracks where many wounded soldiers live, a mired bureaucracy that made it difficult for soldiers to get treatment, and soldiers with psychological problems managing the daily lives of fellow soldiers at risk of suicide.
“It's a nightmare, and I couldn't really wait to get out of there and get back here,” said Psoinos, whose wife was in law school at the University of Montana while he did his Army service.
Psoinos has since had what he called “excellent treatment” at the Rehabilitation Institute of Montana, a program of Community Medical Center
Tester said the institutional experience of soldiers like Psoinos is exactly what America wants to avoid. Soldiers, the senator said, have offered up their lives for their country; the least the country can do is take care of them once they come home.
“This is the cost,” Tester said. “We owe them.”
The Rural Veterans Healthcare Improvement Act, which Tester sponsored in April with Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and John Thune, R-S.D., would improve rural health care by offering grants to organizations that help vets get to medical centers and requiring Veterans Affairs to work with rural hospitals and the Indian Health Service to develop new health care programs for vets. The bill would also require the VA to tell Congress how to improve fee-basis health care for rural vets.
Tester said veterans in rural states like Montana often struggle with access to health care. Often, because it's hard to get to a hospital, veterans simply go without. That's a burden they ought not have to shoulder.
Psoinos, who said he felt positive about his military service despite the setbacks and injuries, said the Army makes it difficult for soldiers who still need ongoing treatment. The Army fought him over a disability, arguing that he should receive nothing at all despite the fact that he'll have problems with his leg for the rest of his life.
Psoinos eventually received a 30 percent disability, which entitles him to health care.
“That's all I really wanted,” he said. “But you've got to fight for it. If you're the sort of person who's not going to fight, or if you're injured so that you can't really navigate the system, you are going to get screwed.”
Tester's bill won't solve all those problems, Psoinos said, but it's a good start.
“I think it's a great bill,” he said.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com
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