In 2014, Paula Pedene, a retired Navy veteran and former spokesperson at the Phoenix Veterans Health Administration, made a bold and risky decision to become a whistleblower in a case of gross injustice; and now, almost 10 years since its conclusion, she’s letting others know what it takes exactly to be one.
For those unfamiliar with the scandal (referred to as the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014), this incident revealed many instances of negligence in treating veterans in a timely manner, not only in Phoenix but across the country.
Working as a spokesperson for the Phoenix VHA at the time, Pedene had a front-row seat to the unfair treatment many local veterans were receiving. Since that time, she has retired and published a book of the trials and tribulations it took to stand up against the senior officials.
“I think that it’s frightening, then enraging and ultimately inspiring,” Pedene said.
She explained that at the time, the VHA was pushing a “wildly important goal” of providing veterans with timely access to healthcare. In reality, officials created two separate records of patients they treated in a “timely” manner: Ones who could be treated quickly and those who had more complicated issues.
The latter list would remain secret from the public, leaving many veterans without the timely care they were promised.
Pedene explained those who had problems that would take longer to treat would be put on the secret list where they would have to wait inordinate amounts of time to get the necessary treatment.
“So, they had one list that made them look good and they had the off-the-book list that was actually deadly and killing our nation's veterans,” she said.
From what she observed, Pedene said that veterans would often have to wait as long as a year to get their care if they were placed on the latter list. At least 40 veterans passed away while waiting for VA care.
Before this case gained national attention, Pedene said the journey for her began when the director of the Phoenix VHA had “banished” her to the basement to keep her quiet.
After turning down a request from Dr. Sam Foote, one of the other whistleblowers and former doctor at Phoenix VA, to share insider information, she didn’t initially want to expose the injustice. Extenuating factors in her personal life would have been affected if she were to just reveal everything. Then she hit her breaking point.
“In one of the meetings that we had in front of 30 people, he dressed me down,” Pedene said. “The director dressed me down horribly in front of the others.”
In this meeting, the director ridiculed her for her disability. Pedene, a legally blinded veteran, said she felt horribly but it gave her the courage to stand up against those fighting to keep her down.
Submitted Photo
Pedene said that it was important, albeit difficult, to speak up for U.S. veterans during this scandal, and she continues to do so through speaking events and more recently, her book about this experience.
Pedene connected with Foote after this incident and worked with him to expose the wrongdoings done by that director, eventually forcing him to retire. But, even with hope for a new director, Sharon Helman, not much changed.
“The next thing I know is that she's kind of harassing me, Dr. Foote, and other people that had worked together to remove the former director,” Pedene said. “So, they are actually retaliating against us for no reason and what I didn't know was how far they wanted to go to remove me.”
Despite the hardships she faced because of the unjust leaders at the Phoenix VHA, Pedene, accompanied by Foote, persisted against illegal gag orders and threats to her job to ultimately win against those trying to keep the truth hidden.
Bigger and better things
As the news settled and Pedene worked through the scandal’s hardships, she started speaking to different local groups about her whistleblower journey.
“When I would present to them, they kept saying, ‘You need to write a book, you need to write a book,’” she said. “That's what started it.”
Feeling inspired and encouraged, she set out to write her story, which ended up being a particularly healing journey. As Pedene explained, through her book, she was able to release a lot of the hurt and anger she held about this experience.
More recently, Pedene held a book signing/meet and greet event where she recounted her experiences to an audience at the American Legion Post 44 in Scottsdale, according to a press release.
“The book has won two national awards, the Grand Prize Winner during the 2018 Book Pipeline competition and the Grand Prize from the 2021 Skyrocket Press competition, which led to its publication,” the release stated.
A Sacred Duty was published in November 2021, but Pedene hasn’t had an opportunity outside of this special event to go out and promote the book.
“People have told me it's a riveting read because it goes behind the lines of what a whistleblower faces when they try to expose corrupt leadership,” she said.
For interested readers, A Sacred Duty is available to purchase online at Amazon.
Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
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