BUFFALO, N.Y. — Shamar Foster of Urbana, Md., grew up in a military family in Buffalo. In many ways, it defined his childhood.
Foster would travel the world with his mother, Angela Tomlinson, who served 14 years as a military secretary. Those were some of his fondest memories.
But when his family needed the military most, Foster said they didn’t answer the call.
In September 2023, Foster’s mother was in a battle with thyroid cancer at the VA Medical Center in Waikiki, Hawaii, and according to doctors, she needed to get back to the states to receive the proper care at a cancer treatment center.
“The doctors there were like, ‘We need to get her there. This is the time to get her to Buffalo,’” Foster said.
Her window to be transferred was short — about two weeks — as her symptoms had improved. The goal was to transfer her to the Buffalo VA Medical Center to be near family and have access to Roswell Park.
But despite Foster’s and the doctors’ efforts, no one would answer the phone.
“They were calling almost every shift trying to figure out what was going on,” he said. “You could see the frustration in the doctors over in Hawaii, like why is this happening?”
Eventually it was too late, and Tomlinson lost her battle in early November.
Foster said he can’t stop replaying the events of last fall in his head since the news broke Tuesday that the top two officials at the Buffalo VA Medical Center — director Michael Schwartz and chief of staff Philippe Jaoude — were removed from their positions amid reports of delayed care, misconduct and administrative failures.
Other families reported similar situations to Foster. An investigation has been launched by the VA.
“That's that's all I can think about when I see this,” Foster said. “Could they have been the reason? Is that the reason why?”
Foster knows nothing will bring his mother back, but just hopes sharing that his story will make it so next time, the VA answers the call.
“If you have a job, you're supposed to do it. You do it to the best of your ability,” Foster said. “I hope the shift in this change wakes people up to the fact that people are being treated wrong, or people are just not doing what they are supposed to do.”