Feds investigating additional deaths at VA hospital
Washington — A patient at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia died after being given a drug he did not need. His death has been ruled a homicide. The VA Inspector General and Justice Department are investigating and there are allegations that other patients may have died the same way.
On April 6, 2018, 82-year-old Vietnam veteran Felix McDermott was admitted to the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, with pneumonia. He was improving when suddenly, three days later, he was dead.
According to a claim filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs by his family, no one at the hospital explained what happened to McDermott. But an autopsy performed months later came to a shocking conclusion. McDermott, who "had never been diagnosed with diabetes," was "injected with a fatal dose of insulin." His death was ruled a homicide.
Attorney Tony O'Dell said nine of 10 other patients met the same fate.
"They all seemed to have sudden hypoglycemic event that was unexpected and unexplained, then they passed and died," he said.
The Johnson VA Medical Center said it is "cooperating fully" and that the investigation does "not involve any current employees."
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said the investigation has identified a person of interest. "When someone was willing to sacrifice their life and we find out that their life was taken in such a horrific fashion, it's hard for us to imagine," Manchin said.
It's hard to imagine for a family who now says the VA failed in its duty.