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A veteran 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…