An Air Force veteran contemplating suicide reached out to the Veterans Affairs suicide hotline for help on Saturday night, but was repeatedly put on hold for up to 10 minutes at a time.
After Ted Koran, 59, lost his wife to cancer six months ago, he spiraled into a depression which ultimately led him to consider ending it all. He called the James Haley VA Center in Tampa, Fla., where a recording gave him the 800 number to the suicide hotline. Koran dialed the suicide help number, but he was placed on hold for 10 minutes
"I had to sit there patiently, in emotional distress, in tears, wanting to give up, desperately needing someone to talk to," Koran told ABC Action News.
After waiting for 10 minutes, Koran hung up and redialed the number two more times before finally reaching a counselor, whom Koran said did very little to comfort him.
"I was missing my wife ... I went to the only place that I knew and that I had available to me, the VA," Koran said. "They had me on the [verge] of saying to hell with it."
Koran said he began to think of the 60 animals he and his wife rescued, crediting them for saving his life.
"My wife and I saved them, and they saved me," he told ABC.
The hotline director told ABC that the line was often overloaded with calls, requiring them to be rerouted to other call centers while the suicidal veterans were placed on hold. More than a thousand veterans call the center every day, but only 52 phone operators are on the job at a time. ABC found that one veteran was put on hold for a whopping 36 minutes.
"We're asking for more staff and better technology," the director told ABC.
Separate reports have found that between 18 and 22 veterans commit suicide on an average day.
As The Daily Caller previously reported, the VA has also had problems with its homeless hotline. A December 2014 audit found that one third of all calls to the hotline went unanswered.
