VA Medical Malpractice with Death: They are killing our Veterans!

Are our VA hospitals equal to NAZI death camps?

Photo by Bonnie King

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - A recent expose’ of at least 40 medical malpractice deaths at the Phoenix Arizona VA hospital brings to the forefront the fact that VA medical care is more dangerous than combat itself.

My first article about this subject was published on Salem-News.com Feb 26, 2009, “VA Malpractice with Veterans and President Obama”, with the hope of alerting whoever might be in charge, but nothing appears to have happened except for many more expose’s and articles about the obscene reports of millions in financial payouts such as the recent report from the Dayton, Ohio Daily News which posted “VA Malpractice payouts hits a 10-year high”.

What it shows is that in the 10 years from 2003-2013 the average yearly payout was between 60 – 100,000 million dollars for a total of $845 million to 4,426 Veterans and family members. In 2012, the payout was $98 million.

I decided the best research approach for this article would be to check my computer for medical malpractice in the VA system. I found that the problem was very wide spread throughout the entire VA medical system, with more search results than I was expecting: 903,000 links is a lot to sink your teeth into.

Some of the medical malpractice stories were so bad that they sound like NAZI death camps.

The tragic situation in Phoenix, Arizona was widely reported just days ago. The director of that VA hospital, Sharon Helman, may not be a physician and neither was the associate director, Lance Robinson.

The medical chief of staff is Dr. Darren Geering. He is a physician but it appears he had no function for protecting the VA patients from this egregious action causing the death of at least 40 patients who were on a “secret waiting list” from which these patients died, waiting for any kind of medical care.

President Obama has been advised of this, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, has been ordered to investigate this abominable situation.

He has put 3 of the VA hospitals’ top employees on administrative leave. It is possible that Shinseki himself may have to go.

The fact is, that the VA hospital systems have been running “their own show” for years as witnessed by the 10-year, $845 million payouts.

It is time for a thorough investigation and “clearing of the stables”. The Veterans and the American Legion have known about this for years and at present, at least 3 members of Congress have called for a complete investigation.

One of the worst features about all of this malpractice is that many of the perpetrators have actually been getting bonuses for “good work” up to $10,000 or more to “make them feel better”.

I wish the actual Veterans could feel better about this whole mess, but we don’t.

Will something positive be done? --- Probably not. They will just move the chairs around the hospital offices.