Veteran's medical care splits family

GRANTS, N.M. (KRQE) - A severely disabled veteran from Grants must live in Albuquerque an hour away from his family  because no government services are available in his hometown.

"I haven't seen my son in over a month,” Gabriel Sanchez said. “It's difficult.”

Sanchez, 39, once lived an active life including hunting, fishing and spending time with his children. But now the Navy veteran deals with a serious slate of medical issues that have left him in a wheelchair and unable to walk.

"Losing the ability to walk is difficult," Sanchez said.

In addition, tumors have formed throughout his body, and several strokes have left him with slurred speech. The exact reason for his condition is unclear.

But the hardest thing for Sanchez is being so far from his 5-year-old son and his wife who live in Grants. He has been living at the Veterans Affairs Hospital for the past three months because the VA doesn’t contract with hospital or nursing home facilities in Grants.

The separation is hard on Sanchez’s wife, Victoria, too.

"It's very heartbreaking," Victoria Sanchez said. "I cry a lot.”

Victoria Sanchez is currently not working and her vehicles are too old to routinely make the drive to Albuquerque. She said she cannot take care of both her husband and their son, who has special needs.

"I feel they need to step up to the plate,” she said. “They need to help them. They fought for our country.”

The VA only contracts with five in-patient treatment facilities in Albuquerque plus a facility in Fort Bayard near Silver City and another facility in Truth or Consequences. But vets who live elsewhere in New Mexico’s rural areas and need full-time treatment will most likely have to travel to Albuquerque for that care.

There are other centers throughout that provide out-patient treatment.

"We have a limited geographic area where these folks can be treated," said Larry Bussetti, social work executive for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Albuquerque.

Bussetti said he couldn't talk about Gabriel Sanchez's case because of privacy laws. But he said financial limitations and government red tape limit the VA’s health care in New Mexico.

The VA is currently looking at contracting with facilities in Santa Fe and Gallup, he added.

"We can't be everywhere, but we're trying to be in as many places as we possibly can," Bussetti said.

Victoria Sanchez said she won't stop making calls to anyone who will listen to her pleas to get her husband home to Grants. In the meantime, she racks up expensive phone bills to stay connected to her husband, who longs to be back with his family.

"I miss them a lot," Gabriel Sanchez said.