More Than 500 Veterans Have Died Due to Medical Errors in VA Hospitals

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From 2010 until 2014, 526 military veterans have died as a result of avoidable medical errors while in the care of VA hospitals around the country. The data was obtained from the Veterans Administration as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Washington Free Beacon. According to the Free Beacon which ran a story on the data, “There were a total of 1,452 “institutional disclosures of adverse events” between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, 526 of which resulted in patient deaths…” The records also showed an alarming trend of delays in treating cancer and responding to suicidal gestures. The Washington Free Beacon also reported, “The disclosures include feeding tubes being placed in patients’ lungs, patients being sent home with undiagnosed rib and shoulder fractures, and in one case extracting the wrong tooth from a patient. But buried among the more common mistakes that occur in even the best hospitals—incorrect dosages, surgical equipment accidentally left in patients’ bodies—are reports of the fatal delays in cancer diagnoses and follow-up treatments that would later lead to a national scandal and the resignation of the VA Secretary.”

Kevin Dugan
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