VIDEO: A Grieving US Veteran Calls the VA Suicide Hotline – But Wait Until You Hear the Actual Response

by Cassy Fiano | April 15, 2015 2:16 pm

22 veterans commit suicide every day, and the VA is supposed to be there for them in hopes of preventing that from happening. But when one veteran was feeling suicidal and reached out to the VA for help, they put him on hold — three times!

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Six months after losing his wife to cancer, 59-year-old Ted Koran was in tears and ready to take his own life. Instead, he chose to reach out to the VA suicide hotline for help.

ABC News reported on how Koran’s call to the VA went:

“I went to the only place that I knew and that I had available to me, the VA,” Koran said. Koran said he was placed on hold for 10 minutes.

“I had to sit there patiently, in emotional distress, in tears, wanting to give up, desperately needing someone to talk to,” Koran said. Koran said he hung up and redialed the number two more times. “They had me on the [verge] of saying to hell with it,” he said.

Then, once Mr. Koran was able to get a hold of someone who was suppose to be there for him in his time of need, they offered ‘little comfort to him.’

If this is how the VA is treating veterans who are in crisis, then it’s no wonder the suicide epidemic is not abating. This is the organization that exists solely to help veterans, and it’s overwhelmingly obvious that this is not a priority for them.