"Veterans are among our greatest heroes. After willingly putting their lives on the line, they have been promised access to at least the same quality healthcare of most Americans. The US Department of Veterans Affairs is charged with fulfilling that promise. What happens when a government agency intended to look after its country's former soldiers is rife with dysfunction and indifference? In Mission Betrayed, author, surgeon, and former VA doctor Michael J. Mann unabashedly documents the realities of the current Veterans Health Administration. Even worse than inexcusably long wait times are the deceptive statistics that allow VA administrators to conceal mediocrity, abuse and neglect, and that instigate the denial of life-saving surgery to sick veterans. Drawing on both personal experience and real-life stories of vets who have been harmed, at times to the point of death, by the agency meant to protect them, Mission Betrayed sheds light on a broken system like nothing before it."--Publisher's description.