NEWS ALERT: NEW VA PATIENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE YOUNG WOMEN IN THEIR 20s FROM AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ WARS

New VA patients younger, more likely to be women

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 14, 2009

http://tiny.cc/QKwV0

(12-14) 10:45 PST Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP) --

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in this quiet, bucolic town tucked between coal country and the nation's capital used to go months without treating a female veteran.

Today, they're reporting the beginning of a boom.

Mixed with the Vietnam and World War II-era patients waiting for a doctor are 20-something women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, reading Allure magazine and, in some cases, coming in for pregnancy tests.

The hospital sees nearly twice as many women it did before the Sept. 11 attacks. Administrators opened a women's clinic and are trying to take female veterans into consideration when deciding everything from the color of the walls to the size of the prosthetics offered. Waiting areas soon will have kid-friendly tables. An onsite day care for veterans with medical appointments is under review.

Read full story here: http://tiny.cc/QKwV0