Veteran Dies Waiting for Ambulance in VA Hospital
by
Breitbart News 4 Jul 2014, 10:08 AM PDT
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A veteran
who collapsed in an Albuquerque Veteran Affairs hospital cafeteria — 500 yards
from the emergency room — died after waiting around 20 minutes for an
ambulance, officials confirmed Thursday.
It took between 15 and 20 minutes
for the ambulance to be dispatched and take the man from one building to the
other, which is about a five-minute walk, officials at the hospital said.
Kirtland Air Force Medical Group
personnel performed CPR until the ambulance arrived, VA spokeswoman Sonja Brown
said.
Staff followed policy in calling
911 when the man collapsed on Monday, she said. "Our policy is under
expedited review," Brown said.
That policy is a local one, she
said.
The man's name hasn't been
released.
News of the man's death spread
Thursday at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center among veterans who were
visiting for various medical reasons.
Lorenzo Calbert, 65, a U.S. Army
veteran of the Vietnam War, said it was sad that a fellow veteran had to die so
close to where he could have received help.
"There's no reason for
it," he said. "They have so many workers. They could have put him on
the gurney and run faster than that ambulance."
Paul Bronston, a California
emergency-room physician and chair of Ethics and Professional Policy Committee
of the American College of Medical Quality, said it may
sound ridiculous that staff had to call 911 but that practice is the standard
at hospitals. Typically, an ambulance would arrive faster, and other factors
can stall workers trying to rush patients to the emergency room on foot, he
said.
"The question I would have
(is) ... was there an AED (automated external defibrillator) on site as
required?" he said. Bronston said 90 percent of those who collapse are
afflicted by heart problems and an AED could help them.
It was not known what caused the
man to collapse or whether an AED was nearby.
The death comes as the Department
of Veterans Affairs remains under scrutiny for widespread reports of long
delays for treatment and medical appointments and of veterans dying while on
waiting lists.
A review last week cited
"significant and chronic system failures" in the nation's health
system for veterans. The review also portrayed the struggling agency as one
battling a corrosive culture of distrust, lacking in resources and ill-prepared
to deal with an influx of new and older veterans with a range of medical and
mental health care needs.
The scathing report by Deputy
White House chief of staff Rob Nabors said the Veterans Health Administration,
the VA sub agency that provides health care to about 8.8 million veterans a
year, has systematically ignored warnings about its deficiencies and must be
fundamentally restructured.
Marc Landy, a political science
professor at Boston College, said the Department of Veterans Affairs is a
large bureaucracy with various local policies like the one under review in Albuquerque.
Although the agency needs to
undergo reform, Landy said it's unfair to attack the VA too harshly on the
recent Albuquerque
death because it appears to be so unusual.
"I think we have to be
careful," he said. "Let's not beat up too much on the VA while they
are already facing criticism."
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