DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Veteran dies - MAGGOTS IN HIS WOUNDS ...

Thank god Trump will adress this .. its mind boggling to me that oBUMa barely even gives it lip service much less does a damm thing about it ...

Surprising part to me is they quit ... we have a nurse that went into an operation DRUNK still on paid leave ... he should have been fired before getting out of the operating room ...

And the excuses here ... SICKENING!!!! This is sooooo backwords ....

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/04/4-quit-after-oklahoma-veteran-with-maggots-in-wound-dies.html

4 quit after Oklahoma veteran with maggots in wound dies

TALIHINA, Okla. – Four staff members have resigned from a southeastern Oklahoma veterans facility rather than face the possibility of getting fired, after a resident was found to have maggots in a wound.

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs executive director Myles Deering said the maggots were discovered while the patient was alive at the facility in Talihina, about 130 miles southeast of Tulsa. Deering said the maggots were not the cause of his death.

Deering said the veteran came to the center with an infection and died of sepsis, the Tulsa World reported.

The agency said a physician's assistant and three nurses, including the director of nursing, resigned after an investigation was conducted. Spokesman Shane Faulkner said all four chose to resign before the termination process began.

The incident was reported to the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the district attorney for LeFlore and Latimer counties to determine if any charges should be filed.

Raymie Parker identified the late veteran as his father, Owen Reese Peterson. He died Oct. 3 at age 73.

"During the 21 days I was there ... I pled with the medical staff, the senior medical staff, to increase his meds so his bandages could be changed," Parker said. "I was met with a stonewall for much of that time."

Deering said the agency has been considering moving from the nearly 100-year-old facility, because fixing the existing building would take millions of dollars. Sen. Frank Simpson said the facility was also faced with the inability to find and retain staff.

Dunno why you feel the need to blame Obama for this. He had nothing to do with this. Neither Does Trump.

A quick nursing story...
I use to be an agency nurse. Basically a hired gun. Filling in shifts in hospitals and nursing homes when they were short staffed. My job was to walk in and do the job cold. No training, just handed the keys and a patient roster and turned loose to complete the shift. Hard work and I never knew what each shift would bring.
So one day I was working in a pretty hard luck part of town at a nursing home. One of my tasks that shift was to perform a treatment on a diabetic man's foot. As I was removing his old bandage I squeezed the gauze for a firmer hold. In doing so I felt something inside the dressing 'pop'. As I lifted the dressing away from this mans foot I saw maggots dropping from inside the bandage in my hand onto his foot. When I was finally able to see the remains of this man's wound I noted it to be crawling with a few more.
I treated the wound. Removed all the critters and went on with my shift.
I wish I could say this was the worse thing I've seen over the past 19 years.
I bring this up as a real life anicdote. It's sad what happens to so many of our citizens, many of them veterans, behind the doors of some of these places. The staff may have the best intentions but systematic flaws in for profit healthcare create often dangerous situations. Poor staffing ratios. Poor recognition of patient care needs compared to a staff's ability to to manage them....regulations need to change.

Every president going back way beyond W promised to fix the VA and none of them have touched it, including this one.

We'll see if the next one does.

I don't know what's so hard about letting a vet just go to their family doctor or the local hospital if Uncle Sam is paying for it anyway.

Because when they see Uncle Sam paying for it, they're going to charge extra.

Well it depends on the facility and the state.

Here in Ohio, we are really big on taking care of vets. Remember, Ohio gave vets 100 bucks a month, up to 15 months maximum, for every month they were deployed.

Maybe there is, but I haven't heard of another state do that.

The facilities here in cleveland damn near rival that of the cleveland clinic. Top of the line, really good staff, and I don't have to wait forever for an appointment.

But that's Ohio. I hear all the horror stories of other states, and it sucks.

But that's why the VA exist. If the Feds let the veterans go to local hospitals for any ole reason, watch the cost of healthcare sky rocket. The local hospitals will start overcharging because Uncle Sam is footing the bill. And that's not a democrat/republican problem. That's a greed vs doing the right thing problem.

Also, I think a lot of people aren't aware that your healthcare depends on your rating.

For example, every vet gets 5 years free healthcare after their discharge date.

However, after that, you have to pay some sort of copay, which is still cheap..unless you're rated 100 percent then you continue to get free healthcare.

If you don't have any sort of service connected disability, you have to pay. My parents go to the va but they have to pay a copay every time, unless the injury they are being seen for is service related.

Disgusting.

Our presidents have nothing to do with this? ... huh ...

I wonder who manages the 180 billion dollar budget and the 350,000 employees ...

I wonder why Trump is appointing a VA secratary ... he's a bigger idiot that i thought .. *LOL* ... guess its to take dictation and craft letters .. ...

Just cause none of the past INGRATE presidents did a thing about it .. don't mean the trumpster won't ...

I have no clue how oBUMa looks in the mirror .. current head of the VA that oBUMa appointed was the CEO of proctor and gamble .. wonder how much he "donated" to oBUMa ...

^^ This was exactly my thought, Swish. ^^

Now, regarding the maggots...I know we are all freaked out about them but, there is actually "maggot therapy" that is FDA approved as they eat dead and infected flesh but, leave the live flesh alone. I am not for a minute suggesting this was some alternative therapy nor am I saying it's OK that he had them. I am simply pointing out that the maggots may be more disgusting to you and I than they are a serious health concern.

PortlandDawg would know far more than I do and can probably comment further on the above.

Obama doesn't believe in "The Buck Stops Here"

Obama pockets it.

There is controlled maggot therapy. It's more common in Europe than here but it is used. The difference is the parent flys and maggots are raised in a laboratory environment. These are then applied and removed in a scheduled manor. Maggots eat only dead tissue. Leaving behind cleanse live flesh. They also excrete an anti microbial in their waste. So when placed in a gangrenous wound, dead tissue, they go to work. It's actually really effective.
Needless to say what I experienced was not this therapy in action. It was Wild Kingdom in action.

WTF is wrong with U people ... its his JOB ...

Are u and Swish for real? ...

How is it any different that the Dept. Of Defense or the Dept. Of Commerce? ..

Is it a non-consequential department? ... not as important as the dept. of education .... or the dept. welfare ...

Appearantly oBUMa holds it in about as high regards as U menZas ...

Someone may wanna tell Trump not to worry about the VA, its not in his job description ...

Being a veteran this really shocks me from U Swish ... actually makes me wonder if u really are one ...

He is definitely a vet.

Golly Gee ... Thanks for clearing that up P ...

another stupid post.

so you question if i'm a vet simply because i'm not holding him responsible for the actions of a few staff members at an oklahoma VA?

nevermind holding the staff members accountable, or the guy in charge of that particular facility. or the governor of Oklahoma. nah, you went straight to Obama, as if he directly told those guys "eh, leave the maggots in his wound, he'll be ok".

It's the same reason i didn't blame Bush when embassies got attacked while he was in charge. it's the freaking middle east, and crap happens.

malpractice happens at virtually every health facility on the planet. most of it unintentional, but due to negligence.

that crap happens at the Cleveland Clinic. you honestly shocked it happened at a VA?

what happened to the dude is disgusting and sucks. that shouldn't even have to be said, because everybody here agrees with that.

but for you to go straight for obama as if he hand picked the local staff at some random ass VA in oklahoma is pathetic on your part.

anyway, you can question my status as a Vet all you want.

i question your intelligence and lack of self awareness on a daily basis. just like now.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Not sure what happened but here's the rest of that first post.

You just can't make this stuff up.


Physician assistant who resigned in wake of veteran's death rehired at another Oklahoma VA center


A physician assistant who resigned in the wake of a patient death at the Oklahoma Veterans Center at Talihina has a history of disciplinary action and has already been rehired at another veterans center, the Tulsa World has learned.

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs officials said previously that four staff members — one physician assistant and three registered nurses — had resigned after Vietnam veteran Owen Reese Peterson was found with maggots in a wound and later died on Oct. 3.
Only after following up on an anonymous tip with Veterans Affairs officials did the World learn that the physician assistant was rehired a month after his resignation and is now working at the veterans center in Lawton.

“We didn’t try to mislead the reporter. She asked for the resignation date. He resigned from Talihina,” Shane Faulkner, public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, said Friday.

Faulkner released the names of the four employees to a reporter, but the Tulsa World is not naming the individuals because no criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Jeff Smith, district attorney for LeFlore and Latimer counties, said he has yet to receive a report from Veterans Affairs, but the agency indicated it would forward information to his office.

A check of the four health care workers’ state credentials turned up no history of disciplinary action against the three registered nurses who resigned in the wake of 73-year-old Peterson’s death. But the physician assistant who resigned Oct. 14 and was rehired Nov. 14 has had two disciplinary actions against him by the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision, including one for which he is currently serving a five-year probation.

According to state licensing records, the physician assistant was first put on probation in 2005 for two years following a narcotics violation. He surrendered his license in June 2014 following a complaint of “unprofessional conduct.” According to records, the complaint alleged that he was not being properly supervised, as is required for all physician assistants, and was being identified to callers as a doctor.

His license was reinstated in late January — more than 18 months after its surrender — and with five years’ probation.

Doug Elliott, deputy director at the state Department of Veterans Affairs, said the physician assistant was first hired in February at the Lawton/Fort Sill Veterans Center and was transferred to Talihina in late August or early September.

“We knew about the disciplinary action. We do a background check on all PAs, doctors and nurse practitioners prior to them entering our building,” Elliott said. “In this instance, he had to have supervision eight hours per week, meaning there has to be a doctor there. That was imposed by the medical licensure board.”

Asked how common it is for Oklahoma veterans centers to employ medical professionals with a history of disciplinary action by the state, Elliott responded, “I would say probably 30 percent of our physicians and mid-levels have some type of glitch on their record. Some of our doctors are pristine.”

Lack of a pain pump

At issue is how Peterson, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas, came to have maggots growing in a wound when he was a patient at the Talihina center.

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs Executive Director Myles Deering told the Tulsa World last week that the maggots in Peterson’s wound were discovered while he was still alive but that they were not the cause of his death.

“He did not succumb as a result of the parasites,” Deering said. “He succumbed as a result of the sepsis.” Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection.

The only thing that Veterans Affairs officials and Peterson’s son, Raymie Parker of Atlanta, seem to agree on is that the man needed a morphine pump for pain management.
“Everyone on the patient side wanted him on a pain pump,” said Elliott, who is responsible for the operation of all seven homes operated by the state Department of Veterans Affairs.
Parker said hospice workers told him that a morphine pump could be inserted so his father could regulate pain so that he could stand to have the bandages on wounds on his legs changed.

But Parker said staff at the center would not go along with it. He said a veterans center staff member told him the pump was death and that he was not in the business of killing.

“My dad’s legs, from the knee down, were failing and atrophying,” Parker said. “At some point, it was going to cause sepsis. He did not want his legs cut off due to his religious beliefs. He wanted to die as a whole man. I explained this to the administration and to the medical doctors and was ignored.

“My problem with the whole thing was had they increased his meds to the level he could have his bandages changed, the maggots, the bugs, wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was continually shot down by the medical staff — not the floor staff, the senior medical staff.”
Faulkner, public information officer for Veterans Affairs, said Peterson could not be treated with a pain pump at the Talihina center because it lacked a medical director to oversee it.
“The pain pump that the son requested would have made his care a little bit more comfortable. Because of the lack of a pain pump, there was a lot of refusal by the resident for (wound) care,” Faulkner said. “We did increase his pain medication. However, we could not supply the pain pump because of no medical director in the facility.”


Staffing challenges

The Talihina Veterans Center’s website boasts its location “on a beautiful 600 acre site at the western edge of the mountainous Ouachita National Forest,” grounds “adorned with huge native pine and oak trees, three fishing ponds, patios and other outdoor activity areas,” and “a full time staff of doctors, registered nurses and other medical personnel (who) assure the patients the highest quality of care.”

But Veterans Affairs officials describe the reality there lately as far from idyllic.
In Elliott’s 18 months with the department, the Talihina center has been through three doctors who have overseen care there as medical director, with time lapses in between.

“That’s how bad it is,” Elliott said. “The problem is trying to get a doctor who will stay very long in Talihina. It is a very rural area, and it is difficult to find someone who wants to stay in long-term care in rural locations like that when you can go make half a million somewhere else.”

Talihina is about 150 miles southeast of Tulsa.

Before Elliott hired a new Talihina medical director two weeks ago, he had to increase the salary for the position by 25 percent to $250,000 to attract an applicant.

It was during the most recent lapse of 2½ months between medical directors that Peterson died. On Friday, Elliott explained that that is important because a medical director must be on site to manage pain pumps like the one Peterson wanted.

“The issue is that a hospice company was brought in for end-of-life care. Because there wasn’t a medical director, he probably should have been transferred to an inpatient (hospice) treatment center,” Elliott said of Peterson.


A facility on notice

Faulkner explained that the state Department of Veterans Affairs cleared the physician assistant of any wrongdoing in the Peterson matter because he had increased the patient’s medication and there was nothing more he could do without a medical director on site.
“Once we found out he was really not culpable in this situation, we did give the Lawton facility permission to rehire him,” Faulkner said. “That’s why we felt it was OK to bring him back. He did everything in his power, and that is something we discovered in our investigation.

“If he had never resigned, I think in the course of investigation, he would have been cleared. But he chose to resign when the whole thing fell out.”

The Oklahoma State Department of Health on Oct. 13 received an incident report from the veterans center in Talihina and “determined that the facility fully investigated the incident and took any appropriate actions,” said Jamie Dukes, an Oklahoma State Department of Health spokeswoman.

The agency has denied a request to provide the report, saying it contained identifying information that is prohibited by law from being released.

No minutes are posted on the agency’s website, but Faulkner said at the Oklahoma Veterans Commission’s most recent meeting in November that officials put the public on notice that the Talihina Veterans Center might not be long for this world.

“The lack of a medical director in the Talihina facility for so long definitely impacted us with this case. That is why the possibility of closing Talihina has been broached — and relocating it to a larger location such as McAlester — because of the difficulty we have in finding medical staff.”

Still, any replacement for the Talihina facility, which opened as the Eastern Oklahoma Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 1921 and was converted to a nursing home under the Veterans Commission authority in 1975, is still a ways off.

“This is years down the road. We don’t know where we would go if we did go. We don’t have property (in McAlester). It takes several years to build a facility like that,” Faulkner said.

So why not just shutter the place if a doctor to run it properly is so hard to come by?
“We really don’t want to put 175 veterans out on the street,” Faulkner said. “We do have a medical director on staff now. We’re hoping this one sticks around now.”

I saw you reposted it, but I copied this part:

A physician assistant who resigned in the wake of a patient death at the Oklahoma Veterans Center at Talihina has a history of disciplinary action and has already been rehired at another veterans center, the Tulsa World has learned.
Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs officials said previously that four staff members — one physician assistant and three registered nurses — had resigned after Vietnam veteran Owen Reese Peterson was found with maggots in a wound and later died on Oct. 3.
Only after following up on an anonymous tip with Veterans Affairs officials did the World learn that the physician assistant was rehired a month after his resignation and is now working at the veterans center in Lawton.
“We didn’t try to mislead the reporter. She asked for the resignation date. He resigned from Talihina,” Shane Faulkner, public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, said Friday.

________

Why in the world did Oklahoma VA rehire this dude?

U don't question my intelligence ... YOU'VE CALLED ME STUPID ... pretty sure that takes all the ambiguity out of it .. *L* ..

if this was a blip on the radar with the VA .. NO BIGGIE ... stories like this happen ONCE A MONTH ...

The things a mess .. can't wait til Trump gets in there so our vets can get the care they need w/o dying waiting for it ...

OBUMa treats refugees and illegals BETTER than he treats vets .... If thats OK with U .. and obviously it is with u and your lib amigos on here ... so be it .. its not OK with me and i'm thrilled we finally have a president that will give it the attention it deserves ...

I would personally rather see OUR VETS TREATED better than refugees and illegals ..

The VA is a DISGRACE all over the country and u want to act like this is an ISOLATED INCIDENT ... sad part is .. U KNOW IT ... u just won't ADMIT IT ... thats very sad ...

In your heart .. u know the truth ... i'll leave it at that ...

Now let me get back to my bottle .. another character flaw of mine according to U .. *LOL* ...

if the shoe fits, then wear it, homeboy.

in my heart, i know the truth.

it's why i post what i feel is the truth, backed up with supporting evidence.

also, illegals don't get treated better than vets. that's a false narrative. please stop lying.

I don't drink Swish ... so much for that shoe fitting ... *L* ...

And your going to ask me to stop lying .. *LOL* .. classic ...

Could've fooled me.

That one come from your heart, where u know the truth or do u have the supporting evidence for it ... *LOL* ...

Your a trip dude ...

Nah, that one just came from my bag of insults.

Which obviously doesn't take much effort to find some for you.

So far Sen. Rick Santorum's proposal has made the most sense to me: allow Vet's to get routine care at local hospitals, urgent cares, etc.. and scale the VA itself down so it can focus on veteran specific care such as PTSD and combat related injuries.

The benefits I see would be a significant increase in access to healthcare as vets aren't having to deal with months long wait lists and several hour drives. Plus the quality of care improves. We don't see such systemic problems in the private healthcare institutions that we do at the VA.

Some of the problems that I think might be is if it is handled like Medicare. When the gov't arbitrarily decided to reduce the amount doctors were reimbursed, we heard a lot of stories where doctors were either limiting the number of Medicare patients they brought on board, or stopped accepting Medicare patients all together.

When your mindset is to defend "your" agenda regardless of how much BS you have to spread to do it .. its certainly alot easier ...

My generation was taught to look in the mirror when things went wrong .. your generation doesn't even know there is a mirror .. u look for someone else to blame .. thats evident by the fact u have NO CLUE why this falls squares solely on oBUM'a shoulders ...

THE BUCK STOPS HERE ... in your world the buck NEVER STOPS WITH U ...

Great way to live life ... ITS THIER FAULT .. poor ole me ..

Its past Martini time for me .. into the JD now .. *LOL* ..

Your generation taught you that?

Then can you please explain why your generation didn't take responsibility for:

1. Screwing up the housing market

2. Screwing up the economy

3. Starting two wars

4. And my personal favorite, leading the way to charge parents with crimes for disciplining their kids if they act up.

^^^ yea, spankings and such got made illegal by your generation. The "everybody gets a trophy" wasn't started by us. That's all you and the rest of your squad.

For somebody crying about looking in the mirror, with your BS rhetoric, I'm surprised you haven't claimed you're a vampire yet, so you aren't responbile and accountable for looking into one.

I don't have to defend my agenda. I stated facts and you got triggered by it.

If you need a safe space from facts, let me know. I can bus you and 40 to Kansas, conservative capital. Grey hound ticket shouldn't cost that much, and you can probabaly drink on theirs, too.

I'll play one time .. even though your a WASTE OF TIME cause u NEVER ANSWER MY QUESTIONS ... EVER ... u just DEFLECT and IGNORE ... but i'll indulge u this one time ..

We'll take them one QUESTION AT A TIME .... try to keep u FOCUSED ...

- how did my generation screw up the housing market? .. please explain ...

IF u reply and ANSWER my questions and then the discussion os over .. we can move on to question two ...

And remember Swish ... UNLIKE U .. i actually UNDERSTAND MONEY ... so make sure u talk to someone with a clue before answering .. CAUSE GOOGLE WON'T BE GOOD ENOUGH THIS TIME ..

Your friend ... the STUPID LUSH!!! *L* ...

PS. You give yourself way to much credit if u think u "trigger" me .. i only reply to u cause your BS is believed by some on here .. they actually NEED the TRUTH if there willing to listen and accept it ..

When i see a response from U .. my first thought it to *L* and wonder what BS, unfacutal response will follow ..

I can't speak to any of the issues you wrote about other than the housing market.

You do realize that the federal gov't. changed the ....for lack of a better term....the "who's eligible for a loan" thing, right?

Down payments were not necessary. Ability to show proof of income, and ability to pay, were factored out of the equation for the most part.

And the housing boom was off to a great start. Packaging good loans with bad, sallie mae and the fed. gov't sucked them up.

And then those people who should've never gotten a home loan started defaulting on the payments... And, the housing boom went - wait for it: Boom!

See, no "generation" is responsible for the housing boom, or bust. Congress is responsible. They changed the rules and let banks lend to pretty much anyone. The banks sold the loans for a profit, and the gov.'t took the loans.........only to find out later "dang, these people can't pay the mortgage." And then "who do we blame it on?"

As to the rest of your post, I don't know. But the housing fiasco was a direct result of congress changing the banking regulations and saying "the gov't. will buy those mortgages." The banks went by the rules handed down to them.

BTW ... nice job POINTING THE FINGER ..... AGAIN ... there is something to be said about consistency ...

Who? The generation X and older guys like you. Getting ridiculous loans on homes you know damn well couldn't afford. And the gen x and older generations running the companies giving y'all the loans in the first place.

And the government and economy being trash all happened under your old ass's watch.

(Calm down old people, just trash talking Diam directly)

There. Explained.

I understand money, guy. *L*

So anyway, now that I I had to take you to school in evening classes again, back on topic.

So yea, this sucks, I wonder why the STATE VA department decided to rehire this loser.

What age group is generation x and what generation am i in? ..

How long ago was the housing market crash? ..

And if all u want to do is trash talk .. witch is pretty much al u ever do with me ... lets just go back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

*childrst response* hey, you started the trash talking.

If you don't wanna keep going, then quit. Don't start none, won't be none.

U pointed out to everyone that u were simply trash talking with me .. no problem .. i'm just as responsible as u for that part of our back and forth ... that would be me looking in the mirror .. *L* .. my response about that was in response to this convo .. if u all u wanna do is trash talk about this .. no need to continue trying to have a discussion .. that was my only point ...

Unlike u .. i'm a man of my word .. example .. you've said MULTIPLE times u were done with me on a topic or for a night and within minutes u been responding to me again .. *LOL* .. when i tell u, I'm done with U or anyone else on a topic or for an evening .. I DO WHAT I SAID i'd do .. can't wait to see why thats MY FAULT ... *L* ..

I have no probs finishing what i've started .. what i won'd do is say the same things 1,000 times ...

Now .. go ahead .. u can have the last word on the he said, she said portion of the convo ...

NOW on the the actual topic ...

U gonna answer my questions .. there's 3 of them ...

1. What age group is gen x ...

2. What gen and age group am i ..

3. What year did the housing market crash start ...

I've come to the realization that besides a warm greeting and the occasional discount, America as a whole really could carel less about its veterans. The VA has been a mess for decades. My Father died in a VA hospital. If we as Americans truly supported our fighting men and women, this would have been resolved a long time ago. Even with the current media spot light on the VA it still operates at an unacceptable level. I can hope, but I doubt a new administration will change this.

Generation X and older. Perhaps you missed that part of the post. The housing crash happened a few years ago, however, those who been taking out those crazy loans goes back years.
________

Let me clear here: I don't enjoy trash talking you, as much as that might seem like a lie.

I'm only responding to you how I'm treated. From your comments trash talking my dad and my relationship with him, to all the other nonsense, to then trying to question if I'm a vet or not.

I'm not an turn he other cheek person. I'm not a look the other way guy. I WILL check you or anybody else who tries to make personal insults. I am vengeful.

So if you want to keep it straight policy talk, then let's go with that.

If you want to keep insulting me, that's fine too. I'll keep going as long as you do. I'll stop when you stop.

Swish does have a point, in that it was the Clinton and GW Bush administrations that relaxed, horribly, the requirements for an FHA loan. Heck, they allowed people whose only income was welfare, and people with horrible debt to income ratios to become eligible for an FHA loan. Worse still, they allowed these loans to be processed at 100% of the sale price, or even above in the case of rehab loans.

Clinton and Bush wanted the housing market to help drive economic activity, and it did to a small extent ..... but then the market crashed when many of these high risk loans did what high risk loans do .... and they went belly up.

That was the generation before mine, and both GW Bush and Clinton are 70 years old.

I would also add that the way we have used monetary policy has been almost criminal. Driving interest rates into the floor makes it "easier" to carry $20 trillion in debt, and it allows people to finance things more easily, but it also eliminates the ability of people to save for the future.

Obama also dumped over a trillion dollars into the stock market, buying up bad stocks. The market exploded, because a lot of the risk fell out for investors.

We have been causing major problems with most of our monetary policies for decades, and then we throw more horrible policy at it, expecting it to fix things.

Everything you said is pretty much true and that's part of the problem. We have 400 politicians in DC who think they can manipulate a way to always have a good economy, when that's just impossible.. and they end up causing wilder swings than we would have if they just allowed down economies to run their course and correct themselves.... because even after decades of history, they still don't believe the law of unintended consequences exists.