Military doctors treat patients who outrank them better, study says

I'll throw in a war story that has some relevance.

My wife's first experience with being around the Active Army was while I was attending my Officer Basic Course at Ft. Benning. The Officer Cadre's wives had an Officer's Wive's Club aimed at the young officer's wives, many of whom this was their first experience beyond HS or College. The Base Commander's wife was very active in the Club.

My Youngest was about 6 months old at the time and came down with Scarlatina, so Jean rushed him over to the base hospital emergency room and she called the company to find me. The 1st.Sgt was a worthless piece of crap and told her we were in the field and he couldn't contact us. We were actually in the Classroom down at the Infantry School (just beyond the Jump Towers) and that was on the schedule. If you have had family members deal with Military Doctor's, they often don't have a very good bedside manner and Jean felt she was getting blown off. Since she could get ahold of me, she called someone that had said to call if they had problems, the Post Commander's WIFE! Needless to say, that go things rolling. The Battalion Commander came and got me in person and drove me to the Hospital, where the Head of the ER took me and Jean through everything that they were doing for my son.

A word from the General's wife got things moving. I actually believe that the ER was doing everything they could for my son, but none of the doctors were smart enough to take five minutes to explain what was going on to a distraught woman that had her husband's 1st. Sgt "lose" him.

The BNCO made sure that I understood that I was not permitted to kick the 1st. Sgt's ass. I dearly wanted to do it. Don't know what official happened after that, but my experience has been that senior officers that get this kind of phone call from THE General because someone in the unit was stupid and lazy, makes loads of crap land on that person.

I would have loved to have heard the actual call from the General's wife. Maybe like this? "Dear, Mrs. Cable is down at the ER with a sick baby and YOUR Army has lost her husband. What kind of Army are you running? General: "Yes, dear, I'll get right on that problem". Then downhill from there.