Veterans Affairs impacts local patient, moving to new location

By NewsPress Now

One St. Joseph man is sharing how the Veterans Affairs clinic has impacted his medical journey.

“We moved to St. Joe about 18 years ago,” said Jack Hager, a Vietnam Veteran and Christian worker. “I was in the VA system in New York, where we lived prior, just for physicals, etc.”

Hager said a visit to the VA clinic in St. Joe for a physical in 2023, turned into a cancer diagnosis. 

“I had the physical, they said everything is fine,” said Hager. “Two weeks later, they called and said, ‘You need to get to the ER now.’ That got my attention and they said I was basically in stage four kidney disease…but as a result of that, they discovered that I have multiple myeloma, which was a bone cancer thing I’d never heard of before either.”

Hager said he goes to a few different VA offices in Northwest Missouri and Leavenworth, KS. 

“They tell me it’s 1% of all cancers, and I’ve always been an overachiever, so for the 1%,” said Hager. “First they sent me to Leavenworth for the kidney doctor. The kidney doctor, through that procedure discovered the myeloma. So I went to Kansas City and they started treating it. All three of those places have been stellar.”

Tune in Thursday for this special report.

The full version will be updated.