BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Michael Sulsona has spent nearly 50 years without both of his legs.
“We were walking a patrol and I remember the time distinctly it was 10 after 10 in the morning. My pontoon sergeant said ‘turn down this way’ and I said, ‘we just came from there and I really don't wanna go back the same way that I came,’ and he said, ‘nah don't worry about it,’ and I took a couple of steps and I stepped on a landmine and this ambush broke out they were actually waiting for us,” said Sulsona.
The 70-year-old veteran served in the marine corps during the Vietnam War when he was 21.
“I was a basic infantry man in the marine corp. I was what they call a grunt,” said Sulsona.
He says the VA hospital saved his life after complications involving blood transfusions.
That’s why he joined dozens of fellow veterans and elected officials at a rally Sunday outside the Brooklyn VA Hospital in Dyker Heights.
“The VA contacted me last week and told me that they were going to recommend that the Brooklyn VA Hospital, as well as the Manhattan VA Hospital, be closed and that services will shift to outpatient clinics,” said Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis.
Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis represents Staten Island and southern parts of Brooklyn. She says the recommendations are part of the Mission Act which requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to do market assessments of existing services and look for cost savings.
“These are guys that put their life on the line. They put their name on the dotted line and said ‘ I will serve my country’ and you're gonna close a hospital?” said Sulsona.
“That's what's at risk here if this facility closed. 44,000 veterans would have to go elsewhere,” Malliotakis said during the rally.
Malliotakis says the recommendations also include combining mental health services in the Staten Island clinic with a hospital in New Jersey, potentially displacing those patients as well.
The VA submits these recommendations to an independent Commission known as AIR, the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission.
A spokesperson for the VA said in a statement that veterans will always be at the center of what the department does and quote, “Nothing is changing now for veteran access to care or VA employees. Any potential changes to VA’s health care infrastructure may be several years away and are dependent on commission, presidential, and congressional decisions, as well as robust stakeholder engagement and planning.”
The Brooklyn VA has over 150 beds and provides radiation oncology for all of the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System. Sulsona said closing it would be a disservice to veterans all over the city.
“As the veteran community we have to step outside the box and take care of our own. They cannot stop us from talking. That hospital is sacred ground. That's what it is. It's not a building, it's not like any other hospital. You're touching sacred ground. There are heroes that went in there to be treated,” said Sulsona.
The recommendations are expected to be released on Monday. The department said that AIR would review the findings and make its own recommendations to the president in early 2023.
Both Malliotakis and Sulsona agree that closing these facilities should only be done with bipartisan support to ensure the healthcare of veterans nationwide.