Widow sues VA over vet’s death
Dominick sends us a link to MyFoxLA which reports that a widow is suing the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for the treatment of her husband in June 2011. Jonathan Montano waited for four hours with a shunt inserted into his arm for dialysis treatment. He decided to go to another VA hospital and sent his wife, Norma, to get the car. When she returned, she discovered that her husband has been admitted because he had a stroke;
The family claims that the police brutalized Montano, beat him and stomped on his carotid artery, giving him a stroke that killed him, and then lied to his wife about it. The hospital said Montano was beligerent and police attempted to restrain him for his safety and the safety of staff and patients. The hospital said the vet fell and hit his head. According to the widow, a staff member later informed her that her husband had been slammed to the floor by the officers.
The incident was investigated by the VA which, in December 2013, said there was “no evidence of negligence or wrongful act or omission by VA employees that resulted in injury to, or the death of, the veteran patient in June 2011. Although a terrible and unfortunate incident occurred, VA personnel acted and responded appropriately.”
I guess we’ll need to wait for the lawsuit to end to find out what really happened here. In the meantime, I’m not making any judgements.
Los Angeles Local News | FOX 11 LA KTTV
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I just had to go through “Prevention and managment of Disruptive behavior” training”, which is a class meant to teach several levels of managing and deescelating before a situation gets to the point of physical confrontation/restraint of a patient. The training as it goes up levels also includes how to restrain a patient whuile minimizing risk to their safety. Key word is “their”. As a staff memeber we are supposed to do all in our power to back away from a physical confrontation, even if assaulted ourselves. You are taught to break away and retreat until a response team can come in, and even for them physical restraint is supposed to be a last resort.
I have no idea of all the circumstances here, and will not pass judgment until I do. There is likely a whole lot more to this story than we have heard or seen. I will wait and see.
Sounds like the same security force the Department of Homeland Security WON’T let guard their buildings. But you don’t “help a person not hurt themselves or others” by throwing them to the ground. Especially a guy in the hospital, awaiting dialysis treatment, with a shunt in his arm.
Unless there was a court order admitting him to the hospital, or he demonstrated that he was a threat to himself or others, the police had no legal authority to restrain him. Being belligerant is rather broad and general description and does not necessarily constitute a threat. I hope that due justice is served, however since the VA is investigating itself, the probability is pretty low.
I literally burst into tears every time I read another story about VA abuse or neglect of veterans. This needs to stop!
And some people need to do some serious federal prison time. You know, just to let the rest of them know we are serious. Nobody has said anything bad about the medical staff at the VA, its the career bureaucrats that are doing all of the dirty work. People who can’t be fired tend to do some really stupid shit. They cheat because they know that nothing will ever happen to them even if they are caught at it.
According to the claim the VA police stomped the guy because he wanted to leave? Why not let him leave. Last time I checked it was OK and legal to leave a medical facility as long as you were not locked up in a mental health unit involuntarily.
This is just an example of the kind of “investigation” we can expect from the VAOIG, that Shinseki is waiting to be completed.
At the risk of sounding cold – I’ll wait for the lawsuit, too.
It would not be the first time in history police/security had gotten out of line and abused someone. And it also wouldn’t be the first time a bogus lawsuit was filed at an opportune time by someone looking to cash in, either.
Either is plausible, and I have no freaking idea which is the truth. So IMO, best to let things play out and see what the sworn testimony in court says.
Some sworn testimony is not worth spit in court. There are far too many YouTube video proven otherwise. Best to have a dashboard camera set up for your own protection.
Of course this would not have been feasible in the VA space but there may have been security camera footage available. Let us hope so. BZ
Agreed. But sworn testimony in court is IMO somewhat more reliable than public accusations made by a plaintiff’s lawyer in a press conference or press release.
wtf?
I know they have cameras everywhere so this was most likely taped.
The would have had to get to the recordings soon, in this case in Las Vegas they were looking for recordings only to be told that they automatically record over them after 30 days.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/investigators-completing-probe-va-medical-center-north-las-vegas