Veteran died after VA turned him away because unconscious man didn’t show his ID, watchdog says

The episode unfolded when a 60-year-old veteran was found unresponsive by a neighbor, who called an ambulance.

Aveteran in the throes of acute heart failure, septic shock, pneumonia, and with large, open wounds on his legs was refused emergency care at a Florida Veterans Affairs hospital because the barely conscious man could not prove his military service, according to an oversight investigation. The man later died at a civilian hospital.

The incident took place in the summer of 2020, at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla., according to a May 31 report from the VA’s Office of the Inspector General.

“The OIG determined that facility Emergency Department nurses failed to provide emergency care to a patient who arrived at the facility by ambulance,” wrote oversight official Dr. John Daigh Jr., in the May 31 report. As a result, he added, his office “questioned the Emergency Department nurses’ competence to treat patients seeking emergency care” at the facility.

The incident involved a tense standoff between the ambulance staff and VA employees in which some hospital staff argued with the emergency crew while other employees said that the facility was not supposed to refuse the patient, the report noted.

The episode unfolded when a 60-year-old veteran was found unresponsive by a neighbor, who called an ambulance.

“Upon arrival, the neighbor informed EMS responders that the patient had been recently discharged from the VA hospital,” according to the report. “The patient was in significant distress, had ‘large amounts of swelling and large open wounds on both legs and feet,’ made loud groaning sounds, and withdrew from touch, ‘but did not open [their] eyes or speak,'” according to the report.

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