Breaking News
Oklahoma VA Allowed A Vet To Die On Their Watch
- The resident, who later died, was originally hospitalized at the facility for an unspecified infection.
- In 2012, a former physician’s assistant from Claremore Veterans Center served 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor charges of aggravated assault.
A total of four staff members employed at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Talihina, Oklahoma, have resigned after maggots were discovered in the wound of a resident who had been hospitalized at the facility.
The resident, who later died, was originally hospitalized at the facility for an unspecified infection. Executive Director Myles Deering said last week that although the maggots were found in the man’s wound before he died, his cause of death was sepsis and was determined to be unrelated to the parasites.
“He did not succumb as a result of the parasites. He succumbed as a result of the sepsis,” Deering stated.
Three nurses, including the director of nursing, and a physician’s assistant resigned after the investigation started. Shane Faulkner, a spokesman for the department confirmed, “All four chose to resign before the termination process began.”
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Deering said not only did the facility report the incident to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, it also provided the report to the district attorney to determine if any charges should be filed.
An Atlanta man, Raymie Parker, identified the deceased as his father, Owen Reese Peterson.
Parker said of his encounter with the facility, “During the 21 days I was there… I pled with the medical staff, the senior medical staff, to increase his meds so his bandages could be changed. I was met with a stonewall for much of that time.”
He added that while he was impressed with the floor nursing staff, the senior medical staff and administration left much to be desired.
“The facility is 100 years old,” Deering stated. He also said that the agency has considered moving the medical center to a newer facility, but fixing the structures at the current location could take millions of dollars.
Oklahoma State Senator Frank Simpson, who also serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, indicated that staffing is a huge problem within the agency.
“The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs is required to maintain certain staffing levels and currently is unable to meet them,” he said. “At Talihina, they had to reduce the population of veterans there due to the inability to staff the facility.”
This is the second time the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs has made headlines for neglectful care in the last few years. In 2012, a former physician’s assistant from Claremore Veterans Center served 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor charges of aggravated assault and battery due to two deaths at the facility that were traced back to caretaker neglect.
5 Comments
Vets should receive the best of care with no waiting at all and any hospital that denies their treatment needs a big change.
Makes me sick they should be charged with a crime!
My two btothers died under the VA..in lis angeles and arizona…one brotherhad a blickage…he was left unattended with lack of care and wrong diagnosis….he shot himself after being discharged. Other brother…weeks later…died as a result of lack of care from the VA…made him wait one and half yr..for durgery…cancer of lung… lousy va..hosp on wilshire…and in atizona. Long story
I am a vet and have been treated very badly by doctors at the va center and have nurses that don’t care about what they should be doing an act like they hate working there an treat vets very badly they should start pressing charges on these non caring high paid quacks that could care less about the vets there supposed to be there to help and they are all way over paid they quit there high paying private practice because va pays much more than they should and they have people who volunteer only to be given a hard time for volunteering then fired and told not to come back its a joke and the bitches who run the volunteer services have a reputation for being idiots and nothing is ever done they don’t want to help vets and are getting paid way to much money to fire volunteerstation who are there on there own time to help vets and are run off what the heck kind of system fires volunteers??!!!!
The VA center here in Arkansas is a joke they don’t treat the vets right and don’t care about vets at all and ate way overpaid to treat vets like crap d I not care about vets and actually fire volunteerstation who only want to help and there’s nothing done to those who are in charge of volunteer services even when they have reputations for treating volunteers badly when they are there on there own time wanting to help without pay!!!!! What is wrong with the bosses who see and know what’s going on but don’t care because they make way to much money why should they care about vets nothing is going to happen to themselves and they know it its just WRONG and continues.to this very day WHY DON’T SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!!!!???