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Today, the 55-year-old McDonough is one of the more than 1,600 employees at the center. He's also sober, drug-free and more than happy to talk about the role the VA played in his turnaround.
"The VA was a godsend for me," he said. "This is a good place. There are loving and caring people here. They do a lot of good things here."
Lois Depp, coordinator of the Health Care for the Homeless Veterans program, knows McDonough's story. "Even though he was here before I arrived, Tom is a success story - and that makes him a poster child for this program," she said.
More than 120 men and women are involved in the program each year.
"Most of our veterans are encountered within the community," Depp said. "After we assess their needs, we connect them with the appropriate treatment services. We see men and women of all ages and from a wide range of backgrounds. Some have health problems or are trying to overcome drug and alcohol abuse. Others can't find jobs, housing or have post-traumatic stress disorder, which makes it difficult for them to function in the real world."
Vince McDonough, who co-captained the 1933 and 1935 UD football teams, was inducted into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976.
For a while, it appeared his son - a Dayton native and one of nine children in a close-knit Irish family - would follow in his father's footsteps. Tom McDonough was playing football for Tecumseh High School and showed college potential. Then, during his son's junior year in high school, Vince McDonough changed jobs and moved his family back to Dayton. Tom McDonough enrolled at Colonel White High School but did poorly in the classroom and had to repeat 11th grade. Six weeks into his senior year, he quit school and joined the Marines.
He spent 13 months in Vietnam, 11 of them in combat zones. When McDonough returned to Dayton in 1971, his troubles resumed.
"I came back thinking I was invincible," he recalled. "Then I started hanging around the wrong people. I did drugs. I drank booze. I had other choices but I ignored them."
McDonough landed hard on the streets of Dayton late in 1987.
"I was doing what I wanted to do," he said. "I didn't need anybody. I was a nomad. I slept in doorways and at homeless shelters. I ate at soup kitchens. Whenever I ran out of money, I'd get an odd job, or sell my plasma . . . for $12 to $15 a pop. I was one of their regular customers."
Soon enough, he was nearing 40 and beginning to have health problems, including bad knees. "It hit me that all those years of abusing my body were catching up with me," he said. "That's when I made a decision. The first thing I did was quit drinking. The VA Center took care of the rest."
While he was in the Health Care for the Homeless Veterans Program, the VA offered McDonough a housekeeping job. Today, he's a full-time painter at the center. His wife, Pamela, works in the VA's Prime Care Unit.
Although things were looking up for McDonough, his challenges weren't over.
In August of this year, a chest X-ray that was part of McDonough's annual physical exam revealed a spot on his left lung. Surgeons at the Dayton VA's Patient Tower Hospital removed the lung on Oct. 22.
Two days after the surgery, McDonough waved off a wheelchair and walked on his own from the Intensive Care Unit to the Acute Care Unit. Four days later, he was sitting in his room flanked by his wife Pamela and registered nurse Debbie Akers.
"This is my favorite wife and this is my favorite nurse," he said, taking their hands in his.
Akers, 50, joined the staff at the VA's Patient Tower Hospital a year ago after 23 years as a nurse at Middletown Regional Hospital.
"I needed a challenge, and when I went job hunting I got eight offers in seven days," said Akers, who will return to Miami University next year to get her bachelor's in nursing. "The minute I walked into this hospital, I knew it was the right place."
She looked at McDonough. "I know it sounds corny, but I love working with veterans . . . and Tom here is a pretty amazing guy."
As Pamela McDonough gave her hsuband's hand another squeeze, he looked into the hallway where ACU doctors and nurses were beginning another day.
"Before I came to the VA Center, I thought this was a place where old soldiers came to die," he said. "But I was wrong. It's really a place where guys like me learn to live."
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