In the latest episode of my podcast, I interviewed Rick Neely, a patient at the Huntington, WV VA Medical Center.
Rick reached out to me after I appeared with Tom Roten on 800 WVHU in Huntington, WV.
I spoke with Tom about several Department of Veteran Affairs scandals I had uncovered, including that of Dr. Shivani Negi.
Dr. Negi is a doctor from the Alexandria, LA VA Medical Center who acts as an angel of mercy, deciding which patients are too sick or too old to receive treatment.
Rick said he felt a special affinity with that story.
“She was violating her oath by harming patients. It really struck a chord with me because I’m experiencing the same issues with the Huntington VA hospital.” Rick told me.
Rick has asthma.
In fact, a doctor at the same hospital wrote him the note. Still, when he arrived for an appointment on December 6, 2021, Rick told me that hospital staff insisted he wear one, created a confrontation, and then deemed him a dangerous person.
“The patient advocate was supposed to meet me to get me to my appointment. He was not there. 2 door screeners became instantly hostile towards me and not being able to wear a mask. They physically threatened me and denied me entranced to my appointment,” Rick wrote in an email.
“I showed up to the door screeners that they have in front of the VA, and immediately, the two door screeners physically got in my face and were telling me that I need to wear a mask, and I felt threatened by them, just their actions: the way they approached me.” He said to me. “Particularly, the one screener with her hand in my face, almost like she was wanting to hit me because I did not wear a mask, but I politely told her that I have a breathing problem and could not wear a mask. She said that she did not care.”
Rick told me that during this confrontation he noticed someone else walking without a mask on.
“I was told that she was different and that was OK,” Rick told me. “It was an older woman pushing her husband in a wheelchair inside the hospital.”
He told me he was later put on a list by the hospital’s “Disruptive Behavior Committee.”
Rick also described being followed by government cars and being threatened by VA staff, including by threatening to call CPS to take his kids.
Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast The Impromptu: Episode 29 an Interview with Rick Neely