WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1999

Where veterans call home

By Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino

On-Line Forty-Niner

Hospitals provide temporary care for the ill, either long or short term, but not a home.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach is an exception to the rule. Over 100 veterans have found shelter and medical care at its Nursing Home Care Unit, located on the hospital premises. Veterans, most of them elderly, who fought in World War II, the Korean War or Vietnam, have retired here somewhat forgotten by the rest of the world. Those who once drove army tanks now rest in wheelchairs, and the world they once defended is now limited to a nurse's smile, a doctor's appointment or a day without aches.

All veterans, whether or not their illness is service related, are eligible for some type of medical care. All they need to do is to enroll at any VA health care facility or veterans benefit office.

Enrollment levels are based on seven priority groups established by Congress. Most benefits go to those veterans belonging to Priority Group 1, those with service-connected conditions rated 50 percent or more disabling.

Harry Coleman, or Ted, depends on the VA nursing home, his only home. At 17, he joined the Army and was stationed in Japan. A motorcycle accident while on-duty left him with severe brain damage.

"He died at 19," said his mother, Edith Johnson, a five-foot tall, slender 82-year-old grandmother.

Johnson went to Japan and brought her son back home to Coffeyville, Kan. Doctors operated on him at the Oakland VA hospital to reduce the brain swelling, but there was not much else they could do to better his condition.

Bound by a wheelchair and a liquid food diet, Ted spent 30 years in the Sepulveda VA hospital and the last five years at the Long Beach VA hospital.

Johnson has come to visit Coleman every day for 35 years now. She lives two miles away from the nursing home.

"I hope God takes him before I die," Johnson said.

She does his laundry, feeds him, talks to him and takes him for walks. Ted cannot lead a conversation but she understands his slurs. Ted's inability to communicate frustrates him, Johnson said.

Coleman's is a service-related injury and therefore he receives 100 percent benefits from the VA. It covers his living expenses, room and board. Johnson's life after her son's injury has revolved around him and she has never had a career.

"If Ted had a wife she would receive his pension. As a mother, I don't get a dime. Some of my clothes are older than you are," Johnson laughed describing her tight financial situation.

The VA hospital is her second home. Besides caring for Ted, she'll push a wheelchair through a doorway if someone is stuck or light up a cigarette for a veteran with shaky hands. Over the years she has developed many friendships with nurses, doctors and other visitors.

"It makes the day go by easier," Johnson said.

For retired Col. Frank Casserly, the nursing home is just a pit stop on the way to recovery. Veteran of the WWII and the Korean War, Casserly joined the Marines in 1938 when he was 18 years old. He was admitted as a patient in 1994, and due to complications lost his right foot last year. Amputation demanded a new lifestyle for the colonel, and he attends physical therapy five times a week at the Spinal Cord Injury Center, a part of the VA hospital.

With an abundance of spare time, Casserly used to frequent the Ham Radio station or the library, which is now closed. Currently he attends an amputee support group, weekly bingo games and Sunday church services held at the hospital.

While watching the Kosovo crisis on TV, Casserly said, "What do you do with the bullies of the world?" NATO's actions strike a cord with the colonel. "Good guys never get any rest," Casserly said.

Last month, the Department of Veteran Affairs celebrated its 10th anniversary as a cabinet department. Even though it is the most recent agency, in size only the Department of Defense surpasses it. It dates back to 1776 when the Continental Congress developed a program to provide pensions to disabled veterans.