NEW HAVEN, Mo. – Pictures are a pathway to the past. Paul Gleitz’s vivid visions from the Vietnam War are wrought with pride and pain.
“I ran to the front gate to make sure the gate was secure and as I came back, a 122-rocket hit the schoolhouse and it blew me backwards into a palm tree. Then I had a hand grenade thrown at me. One of these homemade jobs,” he said. “And I had a little piece of metal in my back from that and still went onto the bunker. My captain is standing there trying to give me support and took a direct hit from a B-40 rocket.”
His heroism honored with a Bronze Star medal with a “V” device for valor and the Army Soldier’s Medal. More than 50 years after Vietnam, the trauma Gleitz experienced has taken a toll on his mental and physical health.
“I’ve got PTSD from that. I dream about it almost every night,” he said. “It’s been starting to mess with my heart. It’s been starting to mess with my lungs. I now have COPD with emphysema and asthma problems. I’ve got fluid around my heart.”
The man who helped his country admits it’s hard to ask for help. But Gleitz said he was out of options when he called FOX 2. After trying three different drugs to treat his lung disease, Gleitz said he finally found one that helped all his symptoms. His community care doctor prescribed it for him, but Gleitz said the VA wouldn’t fill it.
FOX 2 contacted the VA and asked them to take a closer look at Gleitz’s situation. Thanks to the hard work of our Contact 2 volunteer, the VA performed a secondary review and approved the drug for Gleitz.
The VA shared a statement with us that reads, in part, “If any pertinent health information needed to justify the prescription is not readily available to the VA staff, the prescription might be initially denied. In cases such as these, VA St. Louis pharmacists work closely with the community provider to retrieve additional required pertinent health information and/or discuss alternative medications from which the veteran would benefit.”
“How many other thousands of vets are getting the same run around that I’m getting?” Gleitz said. “I just lucked out that I had somebody on my side that helped me out. If you guys didn’t help me, I don’t know. I don’t even know that I’d still be here.”
