Chuck Hughes, Veteran
♦ Every Veteran who has followed my articles on the Veteran who died a couple of years ago, because the RN in charge refused to administer the Heimlich Maneuver when the gentleman was choking on a hot-dog because he was a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR), should be speaking out– no, should be shouting out, for Salisbury VAMC Director Kaye Greene to confirm the nurse responsible for this death by negligence/Ignorance tragedy is no longer employed by this or any other VAMC.
Although I was not personally on site at the time of the fatal incident and my source did not want to speak out publically out of fear of retaliation, I now have independent collaboration by a respected news reporter that my initial source was right. What I now know is that the VAMC “settled” with the dead Veteran’s family after initially reporting only the Veteran’s death, not the circumstances. Only when another nurse contacted the family and told them the truth, did the VA take its habitual “pay to go away” path.
I want to repeat that this did not happen on Greene’s watch and perhaps not even under the limited leadership of the previous director, but each knows the truth, along with the Chief of Staff who apologized in private for “having to misinform the family.”
Veterans, you need to speak out in honor of one of our own who was treated much like a choking dog by being rolled into a room then having the door closed to let him die. Demand that Director Kaye Greene makes a declarative statement acknowledging that the event did occur and that the nurse involved was fired, let go, or moved on, whichever generosity she feels appropriate. She must also be specific and inform us of what actually happened to the nurse. Is she still at our VAMC under another name, was she allowed to transfer to another VAMC or was she was she actually FIRED? This can be done without impinging upon the Veteran’s family’s privacy.
Veterans, do this simple thing, if not for the elderly Veteran who died from neglect and ignorance, then do it because one day it might be your family the VA is paying off.
Maybe The O’Reilly Factor will take my letter seriously now that one of his colleagues has substantiated the truth of the above events, truths that I have informed him of off and on over the past two years.
