PRESS RELEASE: VETERANS WITH DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS (DFUs) DYING AFTER AVOIDABLE AMPUTATIONS

The underlying tragedy is that the VHA is arbitrarily withholding services to conserve contract expenditures when expending six times the cost in treatments, amputations, surgical, and after care cost. HBOT contract services will provide fewer capital expenditures long-term by including existing hospital-based civilian Community Care Providers in the Diabetic Foot Ulcer Veteran population. Read more

Press Release: Hundreds of Thousands of Veterans are Dying from Diabetic Foot Ulcer Within the VHA when a Life-Saving Treatment is Available but Unused

Veteran Eric Koleda of the TreatNOW Coalition has released The Veteran Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) Epidemic: A U.S. Department of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Services Review. His analysis of recent data received from Deputy Under Secretary of Health for the VA indicates more than 796,340 Veterans have died from Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) and Lower Limb Amputation (LLA) in the past 22-years. This is more than all the Veterans Killed in Action in all the U.S. wars (623,982) since World War I. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has been approved by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) since 2002 for all Veterans over the age of 65. HBOT treatments heal on average 74 percent of the DFU cases, eliminating the need for amputations and extending patient lives. Read more