Durham VA Medical Center; No Pillow For You!
Photos of elderly veterans in extreme pain waiting for treatment at a VA hospital in Durham, North Carolina, are going viral.
Retired Marine Stephen McMenamin and his wife, Hannah, were waiting at the Durham VA Medical Center when they noticed two veterans who were struggling in the waiting room.
McMenamin told WSB-TV that his wife found the scene “upsetting,” so she took pictures and posted them to Facebook.
The Facebook post has been shared more than 118,000 times, and McMenamin said other veterans who have had bad experiences at VA hospitals across the U.S. have reached out to them.
DeAnne Seekins, Medical Center Director at the VA facility, released the following statement:
We take seriously any allegation of poor service. I was made aware of a regrettable incident that occurred in our Emergency Department over the weekend and am thankful someone cared enough to share the incident with us. Our mission is to provide the highest level of health care to Veterans, so upon learning of the incident, I took swift action. The employee was immediately removed from patient care pending the results of an internal review.
It is an honor to serve America’s heroes and actions that do not align with our core values will not be tolerated. We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality care to the Veterans we serve and being responsive to our patient’s needs. Veterans deserve nothing less.
Heartbreaking Photos of Vets Being Neglected at VA Spark Outrage
He said a veteran on the ground was using his bag of medication for a pillow after being denied an available reclining chair.
“The nurse started yelling at him, telling him he can’t do that. He’s like, ‘I can’t get up and I won’t get up. I will be here until you can see me. Can I please have a blanket?’” McMenamin said.
The hospital’s chief executive nurse responded and told McMenamin that the matter is being investigated.
Rep. Robert Pittenger said this just reaffirms his push to hold VA employees more accountable.
“It’s absolutely tragic,” he said. “It’s frankly reflective of what we’ve seen from the VA, and that’s why I sponsored last year and this year, the VA Accountability Act.”
Commander of the North Carolina VFW said things in the state have improved drastically, but he said if an investigation confirms what is depicted in these photos, then the staff responsible should be fired.
“There’s no question about it, I mean, there’s no acceptable reason why this should have happened,” Commander Doug Blevins said.
Photo depicts veteran lying on ground while waiting at VA
The nurse responsible will more than likely be sent to the corner for making an oopsie and Deanne Seekins will still collect her VA Executive Bonus Pay. Nothing to see here, move along and die, thanks for your service. David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs recently said “I am empowering our leaders to start taking swift and immediate actions when the evidence warrants a removal. VA recently fired the San Juan Medical Center Director after an investigation revealed unethical behavior that ran contrary to our VA values.” Next stop should be the Durham VA Medical Center.
VA Secretary David Shulkin: Our plan to deliver greater accountability to America’s veterans
UPDATE: Below are a few additional links covering this story.
Durham VA says viral photos showing veterans are misleading
Durham VA ensures best treatment for veterans
VA Attacks Couple Who Posted Photo Of Veteran Neglect At VA Emergency Room
Category: Veteran Health Care, WTF?
Heartbreaking….
Cell phones and cameras to be banned at all facilities in…3…2..1
Perhaps not under the new administration–only time will tell.
The only way that the VA will unfuck itself is when the non performers and slackers are able to be easily and rapidly fired. That is what it will take to get the attention of the shitbirds who know they have basically a lifetime appointment job in that organization.
And given federal employee unions, that will NEVER happen.
Time to blow the whole thing up and start all over again.
Do a federal Act 10 like Walker did in Wisconsin.
it tossed the unions out of the state level and teaching governmental positions.
The unions in Wisconsin threw 120 million dollars into two election cycles and had nothing, and I mean nothing to show for that huge expenditure of members money.
The recall election showed Walker winning with 7 points and the next election almost 9 points.
Walker has already been talking to President Trump, (God that feels good) about how Act 10 was written and implemented.
It is long past time for that to happen here in the rest of America especially such sensitive employment as the VA hospitals.
I have had generally excellent treatment of very serious truly life threatening illnesses, but the snafu’s always seem to be from the ER areas and pension and eligibility issues…
The VA has saved my life three times and my soul once…
More disgusting bullshit, more empty platitudes from the bosses. Looking for a swamp in dire need of drainage? Start with the VA.
Word.
This.
This will not be a popular viewpoint, but I never did care about being popular.
I work at a VA Hospital, and I have to tell you guys (and if you are on here a lot you should know this), not all Veterans are perfect specimens of humanity.
We have a large population of Veterans who suffer from mental health issues, and while I have no idea if that Veteran does or does not, neither does anyone else. I have seen absolute temper tantrums by Vets, throwing things around, making demands, causing a crapload of drama over even the slightest hint that they have been “insulted”.
I am actually kind of pissed off that a supposed Veteran and his wife took the time to snap photographs, instead of trying to assist the Veteran themselves. That’s what you do, you step in and try and assist. Not snap a photograph with no ones permission, and post it online for the world to see. No one in the photo gave their permission, and that aint right either. Which by the way, when originally posted those faces were not all blocked out.
IF that Veteran was legitimately not being looked after, and not throwing a tantrum, and IF the staff were not responding as they should have to his needs… then screw them, and fry them over and open fire.
We do not know that though, we know nothing more than what someone posted online. We all know, no one leaves out important facts… ever.
I see your point however, the customer is always right.
I added a few more links covering this story. It appears the Durham VA Medical Center is trying to do the right thing, we shall see.
” the customer is always right.”
Spoken like someone with no experience serving the public.
If you can’t handle difficult patients then you need to find another job.
“Spoken like someone with no experience serving the public.”
Really, enlighten me.
A vet in pain most assuredly deserves and should get treatment as soon as possible. Having worked in both patient care and sales for roughly 35 years of my life, however, I can affirm that many, many times the customer is obdurate, taking his unjustified anger out on whoever is closest, ignorant, venal, crookedly trying to scam who they can, and just in general no better than pond slime. The “customer always being right” phrase sounds great but is absolutely a cliche of a lie. Customers are people…good or bad.
I was unaware that medical treatment could be refused or delayed for being an asshole, I stand corrected.
Did not state that, nor would I. But saying a patient is always right is disingenuous at best…ever see a junkie demanding drugs, for instance?
I have to disagree David. Someone asking for a pillow, blanket or a reclining chair is a far cry from a junkie demanding 120 Oxycontin.
A medical professional would be able to distinguish between the two and should have the communication skills to deal with each situation.
My intention was not to be disingenuous rather draw attention to patients rights regardless if they are assholes or angels.
Patients are NEVER at their best humanity. They’re SUFFERING. They’re hurting and deep down, they’re scared, because they are in a weakened state, and a lot of them are alone. Animal brain instincts translate as anger, stubbornness, fear, aggression. They also translate as depression, apathy, and child-like demands. Particularly in older folks.
A veteran in pain should be looked after whether they throw a tantrum or not.
People lose their shit at the VA due to the bullshit way too many VA staff and doctors ignore and gaslight patients.
The entire culture of the VA needs to be reformed.
“The entire culture of the VA needs to be reformed.”
It sure does.
A rare instance on which we agree.
(Checks calendar)
Nope, not for another month yet.
“The entire culture of the VA needs to be reformed.”
Tell us something we don’t know, Lars… and I’ve been involved with healthcare management for 30+ years.
My master’s paper was on the VA healthcare system – top of the list to fix was Civil Service system. Get the unions out of it and reform it to the point that no-loads and other flotsam could be be fired instead of “moved”. That’s for starters…
We don’t know what the whole story is. Only what we were told it was, by someone who only had the guts to take a picture, and post it online instead of even attempting to help the Veteran. Which to me, that is as wrong as any perceived misconduct on the part of the VA staff by the person taking a picture.
I don’t sit by and watch if a Fellow Veteran is need of assistance, I step right up.
Only reason I would not step right in, is if I felt the patient was having mental health issues. I would still step in, but only after calling in the appropriate code.
If you read the articles in the additional links, both the Marine and his wife attempted to assist the veterans. Either way, it was the staff’s responsibility to assist, not other patients.
rb325th. Please stop maligning the Marine Veteran and his wife who are responsible for the pics. If, as ex-)S2 suggests, you take the minute or two to read what they did to help BEFORE the pics were taken, you will learn a thing or two. I posted the content yesterday (it’s below) and the links are also available. Yet, your comment repeating that they did not attempt to help was posted this morning.
People in severe pain, like these vets appear to have been, will snap at others and do whatever it takes to alleviate their pain. You can’t hold anything they do against them. Any nurse or employee in an ER worth their salt will recognize that and do what needs to be done to help them. That’s what triage is all about.
I speak from experience. I worked in a hospital years ago as an orderly and met plenty of people who were, frankly, jerks. With very few exceptions, they were “jerks” cause they were very sick. I could never have seen someone being forced to lie on the floor in attempt to alleviate their pain without doing something. What that nurse or clerk or whoever did was just plain wrong.
I went into the ER at Tripler AMC (not a VA) in Honolulu in severe pain (kidney cancer). There were a fair number of people already there, but I was seen within five minutes. Same should happen to anyone else in severe pain. At least find out if they have allergies, then give them pain med for cripe’s sake.
If you don’t want to deal with people who are not at their best, do not work in a hospital. It’s not the job for you.
From the news story about Durham VA saying story is misleading:
“She says the other veteran even apologized for laying on the floor.”
Seriously? This is very revealing of the attitude of the VA Director at the Durham VA (who was the one who said this). If a patient apologized to me for laying on the floor because he was in severe pain, I would reject that and apologize to him or her that the situation came to that. Guess the VA Director is happy that this patient fell in line and became a “team player.”
There was absolutely no need for that man to say he was sorry.
“not all Veterans are perfect specimens of humanity.”
Word.
Just because you are a Veteran does not mean you are a good person.
Hell no. Just look around here. Bunch of freakin’ savages. Thank God.
Motherfuckers better be savages otherwise I’ll be worried I wandered into a Martha Stewart etiquette page for fuck’s sake…
“Bunch of freakin’ Savages…”
Which is likely why I feel SO at home here.
Just because you are a Veteran does not mean you are scum sucking slimebag of drug addled wet brain alcoholic behaviors.
I got news for you, it’s worse at public hospitals, any of them…
Been there, worked there, dealt with that and lived to tell about it too…
Do not even imply that that is my point of view about these Veterans that I spoke of. I have a crap load of empathy for the majority of them.
Hell, there are Veterans I only know of because of things related to this place, that I would not piss on if they were on fire in front of me. If they were in the hospital here, and needed my assistance I’d give it to them though, because I am better than they are.
I have been threatened, I have been swung at, I have been called every name in the book… and far worse has been said or done to the folks here who work with them on a daily basis, and they get treated with respect, and dignity.
I used to be a bartender near a VA hospital. Amazing how many were “drying out” at the VA. Nice guys, but not heros or “wounded warriors”.
And let’s not forget that the VA is now basically welfare for anyone who has ever spent 180 days on active duty (or whatever the qualification is now). Just like any other public hospital. The days when the VA was for retired military personnel and those with service connected problems is long gone.
Oh, and when we signed up with the US Military we were given the assurance that our health care would be taken care of for the rest of our lives at no charge…
Well, then why am I still paying for it in spite of being 100% non service connected disabled, but still 100% disabled?
And like Veterans are the only ones in the world with issues of drugs and alcohol???
Are you fucking serious dude???
Veterans actually have a lower incidence of it simply because a lot of Veterans that do have issues also have the self discipline and understand it is the Veterans responsibility to take care of it themselves, get treatment and once treated, stay with the treatment for the rest of their lives.
Look it up, the stats are there if you look for them…
Sheesh…
Not only that but despite the left’s stereotype of us as a bunch of uneducated knuckle-draggers, we ARE overall the highest-educated section of society with the highest percentage of HS and college grads. These days it’s not uncommon to come across a Senior NCO with a Masters Degree!
you still pay, because your disability is not Service Connected. The VA was never a “free for all Veterans” medical provider.
When I first came into the VA, I was paying co-pays. I don’t any longer because I am 100% Service Connected Disabled.
If you have outside insurance, are below 30% Service Connection, you will be paying some share of your VA Healthcare. Hell, we bill Tricare and every Insurance Provider out there.
Where this idea comes from, that a single enlistment or anything short of full retirement guaranteed you health care is beyond me.
It comes from communities like mine where reps from the VA or contractors for them come to town trolling for veterans to sign up for VA benefits. Knew one who continued to refuse to sign the VA forms already filled out for him because his injuries were not service connected. He finally gave in and was promptly furnished with housing and a sizable monthly income.
In other words, we paid people to go hunt down guys to hand VA benefits. Pretty big waste of tax dollars, while deserving vets could get nothing or had to file multiple times to get what they had earned.
” we were given the assurance that our health care would be taken care of for the rest of our lives at no charge…”
Really? Show me. I must not have read the fine print in my enlistment contract.
“And let’s not forget that the VA is now basically welfare for anyone who has ever spent 180 days on active duty (or whatever the qualification is now). Just like any other public hospital. The days when the VA was for retired military personnel and those with service connected problems is long gone.”
Call me irrational, but I thought the Veterans Administration represented all veterans.
Thanks for pointing out that your service was more glorious than others.
I think his point was different or at least the way I read it.
For example: A 10+ year guy wounded in combat that needs medical care (VA) should get it.
A 181 day General Discharge turd should not get it. But they do….
” your service was more glorious than others”
Actually, it probably wasn’t. But, glorious or not I do not feel that anyone is entitled to lifetime free medical care for any problem just because they spent a couple of years in uniform. Sorry, but you just ain’t that special.
Check priority groups 7 and 8 and tell me that is anything other than welfare.
https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/resources/priority_groups.asp
“Actually, it probably wasn’t. But, glorious or not I do not feel that anyone is entitled to lifetime free medical care for any problem just because they spent a couple of years in uniform. Sorry, but you just ain’t that special.”
Point out where I said that veterans were entitled to lifetime free medical care, I actually agree with you. You have no idea how many years I served and never said I was special. I enrolled in the VA Health System in 2013, over 20 years after I was discharged during a break in medical coverage. I received a physical that I paid for and have not used it since. I pay for my own medical coverage.
What I said was that I thought the Veterans Administration represented all veterans.
You seem to think that your years of service are more worthy than someone else’s years of service.
Priority Groups 7 & 8 may very well help a veteran who earned it.
The system is what it is. What are you proactively doing to change the system or voice your concerns?
Have you contact your Congressional Representatives?
Senators?
Department of Veterans Affairs?
House Committee on Veterans Affairs?
The Subcommittee on Health?
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations?
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform?
Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General?
United States Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs?
Attended any committee business meetings?
Attended any committee hearings?
Veterans Advocacy Groups?
Started any petitions?
Protest?
Created a blog to voice your displeasure with the VA Health System?
Contacted local and national media?
Shout your displeasure from the rooftops?
We can bitch and moan about shit we don’t like but at the end of the day, the system is still there, imperfect as it can be. I choose to be involved, you should as well or just continue pissing in the wind.
“Point out where I said that veterans were entitled to lifetime free medical care,”
Point out where I pointed out that my service was more glorious than yours. Or whether my “years of service” are more worthy than anyone else’s.
“Priority Groups 7 & 8 may very well help a veteran who earned it.”
If you think the mere wearing of a uniform for a couple of years earns a lifetime of free medical care, then they have earned it. I do not.
And round and round we go.
“Point out where I said that veterans were entitled to lifetime free medical care, I actually agree with you.”
Reading comprehension is important when debating on the interwebz.
What are your thoughts on direct pecuniary aid?
Piss off. Never stepped foot into any VA facility, probably never will.
And I’ve got a lot more “time on the pond” than a lot of the folks who do use the system. FYI.
That’s why the VA should create a separate room for vets with mental health issues. That’s what the local hospitals have done. That way the nurses have no surprises.
I worked in health care in private facilities and the VA numerous times for over 25 years on a part time basis as a Licensed Practical Nurse.
if any nurse at any level acted as the nurses and the director of that VA ER did they would have not only been fired but would have been brought up on charges for serious patient abuse and spent time in prison.
How dare you crap on anyone that has an issue with that sort of treatment.
You think Veterans are bad? Work in a public nursing home with the street urchins that have spent most of their lives living under bridges then get T-19 medical assistance and watch them demand to get steak and eggs for breakfast or not like oatmeal and call the state inspectors to investigate the nursing home and all the people in the place.
You, your attitude and those people in that hospital are the exact reason the VA is so screwed up in the first place.
Please let us all know where you work, I will personally print this out and send it off to the State Board of Nursing and Health Care Regulation and have you investigated for patient abuse and hopefully get you tossed in prison for a few years so you can see what real patient abuse is…
I will also guarantee you this whoever you think you are that I will be sending a copy of this complete article and your exact words highlighted to the Director of the VA in Durham North Carolina and the new Secretary of the VA post haste.
You and your I’m so abused by you stinking Veterans attitude are exactly the kind of person that should never be allowed to serve any patients let alone Veterans.
We’ll see how popular you are in the near future, this truly deserves investigation and I
WILL push hard for it.
You’re reading comprehension skills truly suck.
You are one of those who like to place motivations, and thought processes on others based on your own preconceived notions and biases.
You think all VA Employees are bad, so therefore I must be too.
You do whatever you think you must, but make sure you have your fucking facts straight Brother.
I have had my job threatened here before by none other than the Slrpie and company, so you better have something really good to fucking go on.
Threaten me over opinions expressed online? Real internet badass you are.
For the Record, I do not work in Nursing. Never said I did. Still get to experience on a daily basis everything I just stated. As a patient, and working at the VA.
Douche canoes like you, bitch and moan about the VA, but that’s about all you will ever do. Why be an agent of change, and put your own skin in the game, when you can preach from outside, and make grand convictions based on your prejudices and not fact. Oh, you held a part time job as a bed pan changer. Congrats…
No RB, I took care of the Veterans when they needed it and if you had bothered to read about it, I usually have nothing BUT good things to say about them as they have done very well for me saving my life three times and my soul once.
You are the one talking shit about some Veterans that go off the deep end, and I am not denying that they do.
That incident in Durham was abuse in any Board of Nursing’s book, period.
AOh, and you obviously are much too good at what you do to be pothered with taking care of the people that you are supposed to take care of, so leave the place.
You are the one bitching about it, not me.
I’m with you on some of the Veterans that go to the VA being raging assholes.
This page has exposed many POS who draw VA bennies who are probably the type of people you talk about.
However, looking at the condition and age of these veterans I can’t see how they can be simply brushed off as “drug seeking assbags”.
If a person is in so much pain that they beg to just be able to lie on the floor what fucking right does the staff have to scream at him?
How about going back and reading what I wrote in its entirety. IF the story is 100% accurate, (and that is a big if)then the Staff should be held accountable. Hell, even if he was just being a royal pain in the ass a code should have been called.
BUT, that gave the person taking the photograph no right to get on their moral high horse, and post unedited photographs of VA Patients online, absent their expressed permission, and worst of all to do that instead of trying to help him. If she felt he was in that much distress, why the fuck would she just take pictures of it?
Yeah Always Best to Hide the Truth !!
John you’re starting to pull some real winners out of the woodwork.
Go out front and read your missom statement and ask yourself if your clinic is fullfilling this missom? Also you would not have your job if it was not for the injured vets. I am not there for you. You are there for the injured vets. Jo3e
Nice try asshole. I am 100% Service Connected Disabled.
I am a hugely proactive when it comes to the Veterans we serve.
I am stating the facts, they aren’t pretty but they are the facts.
No one knows the entire story of what happened there, because none of us were there. Photos don’t tell the entire story.
She should have got off her ass and tried to assist that Veteran, like any one of us would have.
If you wouldn’t, then you are just as wrong.
So who died and appointed you God ???
How do you know that they did not assist the other vets? It is just as sensible to assume that they did do what they could to help AND took some pics as to assume that they did not.
What if the Marine vet and his wife were themselves in wheelchairs? You would still expect them to do what staff members should be doing? Like accessing rooms in the back where the pillows and blankets are stored? Maybe they should have driven to the local department store to get bedding?
Read the stories. They support the vet and his wife doing what they could to help. Your assumptions were likely wrong. And, the folks you expect to help out were themselves in the ER, one would assume for something that would not wait until the next day – since that is usually why one visits an ER.
I lifted this from the FB page that started the public outcry. I did so in response to rb325th’s concern. It is the write-up from the Marine Veteran who was at the VA. Decide for yourselves: “Yesterday (2/24/17) while at the Durham, NC VA Hospital, my husband Stephen McMenamin and I witnessed some very disturbing events. The man in the wheelchair on the left, were waiting in that waiting room at least 3 hours. The man bent over grabbing the chair, was yelling in pain and was borderline convulsing and almost falling out of his chair he was in so much pain. No one paid him any attention until I approached a nurse to please check on him. This gentleman sat in the waiting room in extreme pain for hours upon hours with very little attention paid to him. The gentlemen seen in the two photos on the right, came in extremely sick. He could barely walk, sit up, or breathe. My husband had been directed to a chair just off the waiting area because it reclined (my husband was being seen for extreme lower back pain). Upon this man walking in and telling the nurse he needed to lay down, and her telling him to have a seat (with very little regard for his well being), my husband got up and offered this man the reclining chair. This man sat in the chair for probably about 15 minutes before he was told he had to get up immediately. Upon being approached by the nurse (who was extremely rude to him), he told her he could not sit up and he needed to lay down. She completely disregarded him and demanded he go sit in the waiting room area, leaving the recliner completely empty. Upon seeing this, and seeing how rude the nurse was being, my husband approached the nurse and asked why this man was not allowed to stay in the recliner given that my husband had been sitting in it for 30 plus minutes. The nurse refused to provide any explanation or even her name, and stormed off… Read more »
Slight correction. The write-up is from the Marine Veteran’s wife.
Another day another VA nonsense. So much for reform huh?
I went to a standard civilian ER in JAN and saw similar there. People were sleeping in whatever position they could, and generally had more miserable looks on their faces than I had.
I don’t really know what governs how quickly people in those are seen, but I skipped past most of them for whatever reason.
Really all that separated the scene I saw from this story were waiting room chairs without armrests, so people could lay down.
Triage – that’s how ER’s do business. Those that are in worse shape go to the front. EMTALA ensures that once you walk in to be seen you can’t be turned away.
I’m dealing with a bad case of pneumonia – spent this past Saturday morning in the local ER for 4 hours – saw a few older people that had been involved in at home accidents (one had fallen down a flight of stairs and hurt her hip) and a ton of kids with cold/flu/breathing problems like me (kids with breathing problems get seen quicker because they are at a higher risk for airway blockage problems than adults). Doc was apologetic about it, but I did get seen and taken care of (x-rays, meds).
There are certain times of the year when ER’s are backed up (cold/flu season) and even time of the month (usually when patients run out of their meds and need a refill, but don’t want to see their family doc).
Agreed, our local hospital is as incompetent as they come….I MUCH prefer the VA to them…..the prima donna doctors need to be door greeters at walmart, the nurses some of them, need to be cleaning bird shyt out of cuckoo clocks imho Somewhere along the line, medicos think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread and in reality, most aren’t worth a shyt! That is a piece of meat in front of them on the table, not a human being, and a piece of meat that is much much lower on the the scale than the precious doctor…..phuck ’em!
Desert, I could not agree more. Having been in health care all my life…Army Medic, retired civilian Paramedic (25 years) and now a hospital worker. And the dipshits out weigh the “good” doctors and nurses by far.
I cannot believe what I am reading here in these posts.
I mean, are we really such a petty bunch that we will ignore the real things that are going on just to point fingers at each other and lump Veterans into a class of low life, trailer trash, drug addled and permanently inebriated deplorables???
Give me a fucking break…
Like it or not, the treatment that Veteran received was patient abuse and the VA by demanding that the proof in the photos be removed is complicit in that abuse.
I hope they get a good lawyer and sue the crap out of the VA, the Durham VA Center the Director nd the individual nurse that abused him and humiliated him in public like that.
In Wisconsin, you would never practice as any kind of health care professional again after that treatment…
As long as we as a group of mostly former veterans who allow this kind of garbage to continue unchecked, then it will go on forever. What we are up against is the use of the “card” when an employee is caught in the act of treating veterans as if they were trash. Face it, the VA facilities have mostly become over-staffed by “card” holders who take care of each other and scream prejudice when someone attempts to expose them.
Well….you all have cell phones that take pictures, let the adverse publicity flow!!!
The VA Hospital is now circling the wagons and DeAnne Seekins, Director of the Durham VA, said yesterday that the photos don’t tell the whole story. According to WNCN TV (NC), “Seekins says they checked surveillance video and records from the night and that the patients were helped. She says she believes they were given excellent care.” Oh bullshit. Then I found this on the same site. You will be pissed if you read it. Very pissed.
http://wncn.com/2017/02/28/veteran-dies-after-medication-error-at-nc-va-hospital/
“CBS North Carolina asked for copies of that surveillance video but the VA would not provide it.”
Hmmm, I wonder why?
Yes, very pissed off.
“Jason Powell’s medical records show he was prescribed 1mg of the powerful opiate every four hours but was given 4mg on two different occasions.”
“It was after he had been administered too much Dilaudid that he was found unresponsive and rushed to the ICU, where he later died.”
Obviously the prescribed amount was misread. Dilaudid is some powerful shit, the perforation in his bowel must have been painful enough to warrant it. Surgery would have been considered once the infection was under control.
At the minimum, his vitals should have been monitored based upon the narcotic he was given for pain and he should have been admitted to somewhere other than a non-critical floor.
This is fucking unacceptable.
Oh shit… sounds like a malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen and a few licenses to be pulled. Where’s the state medical board in this?
It’s happening. The man died in 2012 and the VA is now fighting the lawsuit, despite the fact that the M.D. told the widow that her husband was twice given 400% more drug than was prescribed for him.
The first time the VA saved me was with a perforated bowel too.
I can attest the pain is an 8 out of a possible 10.
And yes, he should have had emergency surgery, I did and although it was still bad for over 2 years and I ended up in the ICU for my 50’th birthday, it turned out good although the VA installed a spare asshole for me…
So that’s why I am a doublenasty asshole now !!!
Link to Facebook page?
From FB search:
We couldn’t find anything for help put veterans first
Looking for people or posts? Try entering a name, location, or different words.
For the record here.
I am proud to have been a “bedpan washer” along with the other duties that go along with managing patient care at the VA, numerous hospitals and nursing homes across the Great State of Wisconsin.
Nobody deserves to lay in a dirty bedpan, well, almost nobody…
And THAT is the difference between me and RB…
Don’t forget that working in health care as a male is a great place to meet women…
I’ve had more pussy by accident than anybody else here has had on purpose !!!
“You get what you pay for”.
See: http://myvastory.org
“The employee was immediately removed from patient care pending the results of an internal review.”
That’s actually a pretty scary statement right there. So instead of being visible, the employee is being hidden away to screw up X-rays or some such? Great.
Only acceptable resolution is being fired. All of them. Complete clearing of the decks. Individuals may reapply, but must have the endorsement of vets whom they have served to be rehired. No unions.