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MARION VA OFFICIALS TO MEET WITH SENATOR DURBIN
WHO SEEKS EXPLANATIONS -- Has..."concerns
about the response to the unusual spike in
deaths at Marion earlier this year."
Marion VA
For background on the many problems at the
Marion VA, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=marion&op=and
Story here...
http://www.southern
illinoisan.com/articles/2007/10/02
/afternoon_evening/doc47025
b53a4472918952878.txt
Story below:
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Marion VA officials to meet with Durbin
BY JOHN HOMAN
MARION — A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said that the senator
plans to meet today with Dr. Michael Kussman with the Department of
Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., concerning recent events at the VA
Medical Center in Marion.
Christina Mulka said Durbin has yet to get a response to the letter that
he and fellow Sen. Barack Obama sent to VA Secretary James Nicholson
last week. In that letter, the senators demanded some answers to
specific questions as to the treatment of patients at the Marion
facility.
They also wanted to know what background check was performed by VA
officials before hiring Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, the surgeon accused of
botching an unknown number of complex surgeries that has led to an
unusually high mortality rate at Marion.
An Obama senate aide reports that it is incumbent upon VA officials to
provide a detailed account of the happenings at the Marion facility to
both senators as quickly as possible.
Both offices have been in contact not only with the VA, but also with
the Department of Defense Inspector General Claude “Mick” Kicklighter,
whose office is conducting its own investigation into the matter.
The aide said some of the Obama’s concerns are ‘What took so long for
the VA to realize there might be a problem?’ And with the higher than
normal number of deaths reported due to complications (with surgeries),
‘Why were there no safeguards or internal catches to prevent something
like this from happening?’”
It’s important, he said, that those veterans who received care at Marion
and elsewhere get the proper care they need when it comes to necessary
surgeries or general care.
All inpatient surgeries at the Marion facility were suspended Aug. 31
after an investigation of the surgical unit by the Department of
Veterans Affairs. It was also learned that Veizaga-Mendez, who has since
resigned his position, was allowed to practice medicine in Marion
despite having to surrender his license in Massachusetts after numerous
malpractice cases had been filed against him.
“The recent revelation that VAMC employed a surgeon who had been barred
from practicing in another state casts doubt on the adequacy of the VA’s
system of credentialing and quality control,” Durbin and Obama said
jointly in their second letter last week to Nicholson.
“It also raises serious concerns about the response to the unusual spike
in deaths at Marion earlier this year,” the letter continues. “We want
to know when the spike in deaths first came to your attention, when you
first learned about reports of Dr. Veizaga-Mendez’s incompetence, what
you did about it and what additional protocols should have been in place
to prevent unnecessary risk to the veterans whose care is entrusted to
you.”
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Larry Scott --
