Feds: Probe into deaths at VA hospital is 'top priority'
Source: Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday a sweeping criminal probe into a number of suspicious deaths at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia would be their “top priority.”
Bill Powell, the U.S. attorney in West Virginia, said his office is involved in a “comprehensive federal criminal investigation” into the deaths of up to 11 patients at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. At least two of the deaths have been ruled homicides, according to attorneys representing families of men who died.
The announcement comes about a week after federal prosecutors indicted a former pathologist at another VA hospital in Arkansas — who is accused of being impaired while on duty — in connection with the deaths of three patients. Authorities say he misdiagnosed the patients and later altered records to conceal his mistakes.
There is no evidence to suggest the cases are related, but the investigations are yet another black eye for the government’s second-largest department, which is responsible for 9 million military veterans in more than 1,700 government-run health facilities.
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By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and REBECCA REYNOLDS YONKER
16 minutes ago
Read more: https://apnews.com/585dd62ec2234b5799b463738ea1f219
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