VA hospital patient commits suicide

#Middlebury #Veterans #Suicide

You’d think that hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs would be safe havens when it comes to preventing suicide. Not so, apparently.

A veteran was a patient at a midwestern VA hospital, having spent the previous three days attempting to go cold turkey off prescribed medications. He wound up each day at VA and non-VA medical facilities being loaded with IV fluids and sent home. On Day 4, at the VA ER, the veteran was admitted for observation.

When he arrived at the ER, the patient asked for help with withdrawal symptoms and told hospital staff about thoughts of suicide and that there was a gun at home. Now, to this layman’s way of thinking, those are some significant clues that the veteran was in possible danger of suicide.

Since there was no room in the mental health unit, the veteran was put in a medical unit, where he told two more medical staff about suicidal thoughts. Another staff member heard the veteran on the phone giving away possessions but didn’t pass on the information.

On Day 8, the patient couldn’t be found on the unit and was paged. When there was no answer, staff began to search. Forty-five minutes later the veteran was found dead from suicide.

At the request of a congressman, the Office of the Inspector General for the VA was called in to investigate. Its findings aren’t pretty.

The ER didn’t report the veteran’s talk of suicide to the Suicide Prevention Coordinator. Three other staff members, who had been trained in suicide prevention, did not tell anyone when the veteran talked about suicide. Two of them made notes but there was no indication that medical staff saw them because the work shift had changed. In other words, the system failed this veteran.

I’m aghast … the veteran spoke to staff in a hospital about suicide and wanting to die. And it appears they let it happen.

© 2020 King Features Synd. Inc.