I saw a similar article about the VA and Vet's with PTSD not long ago and it has me concerned for my father. Although he does not have PTSD he is a disabled vet and is 78. He fell off his front porch backwards bouncing his head off the sidewalk Dec 18, 2008 resulting in a closed brain injury. The doctors expected him to die in intensive care due to bleeding and swelling in his brain. They were able to treat the swelling and bleeding with medications and he survived without needing surgery. As you get older your brain shrinks and he had room inside his skull for the amount his brain swelled. Any bleeding in the brain is a stroke and I was told if he lived he would have problems with his speech and would be week on his right side.
He has made a full recovery, but it have been a very long 20 months of recovery.
His "speech problem" also included his ability to communicate, think, reason and make correct decisions.
A few months ago during his recouperation he asked his primary care doctor at the VA about going home (he was staying at my brothers house while recouperating). His doctor asked if he thought he might hurt himself and if there was any GUNS IN HIS HOUSE. He said he wasn't going to hurt himself, but agreed that the guns should not be there for a while. She said her boss says she has to ask. I had already secured them and had them at my house anyway since no one was staying at his house.
Since he is living on his own again now, driving places, doing some cooking, taking his meds and showering without help or anyone in the house in case he falls and remembering everything day to day I have already returned his firearms to him. I don't think it is a problem, however I will be inquiring at a future appointment at the VA if they have initiated anything in his records to strip his gun rights, but first at his next appointment I will tell his doctor I need a letter from her for his lawyer saying he is competent. I need it anyway since I need dad to get a new power of attorney made (thank GOD he had one with me as his power of attorney since he was not competent to handle his affairs). The current one is for me only and I need to have him add my brother as secondary in case something happens to me he won't be SOL and have to go to court and get appointed if my dad is unable to care for himself again and I am not around or incapacitated myself. I tried to get a new one to add my brother as secondary when dad was doing better, but he still had some memory problems and the lawyers clerk who was interviewing him before the lawyer drew up the papers did not think his memory was well enough to continue.
