Marine's death, hospital's flaws

[soup]

Tampa's James A. Haley VA Medical Center might have saved a man wounded by a bomb in Iraq, a report says. If only...

By PAUL DE LA GARZA, Times Staff Writer
Published June 3, 2005

TAMPA - Investigators say the death last year of a 21-year-old Marine at James A. Haley VA Medical Center might have been prevented if doctors had conducted more thorough tests.

Investigators also said that the VA and the Department of Defense should use the findings by the VA inspector general to better educate doctors on how to treat the type of "blast injury" that has become prevalent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking of troops injured in the war zone, investigators said they found no evidence that Haley's acute care staff, "including its specialty medical and surgical consultants, had been properly prepared for these patients."

Lance Cpl. Jonathan E. Gadsden of Jamestown, S.C., was severely injured in Iraq last August by a roadside bomb. He was on the mend at Haley and was tentatively scheduled to be discharged, but he died unexpectedly of bacterial meningitis Oct. 22.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/03/State/Marine_s_death__hospi.shtml

[Mairead]

1. I wonder...was this unfortunate kid by any chance Black?

Since a number of studies have found that Black people receive medical treatment that is less than that given White people with the same diagnosis, medical history, and socioeconomic status.