McDermott

PARKERSBURG — The family of a veteran identified among those who died of suspicious means at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center at Clarksburg filed the first federal lawsuit for damages on Monday.

Melanie Proctor of Ellenboro, daughter of the late Felix K. McDermott, whose death was ruled by medical examiners as a homicide from an unprescribed and unneeded insulin injection causing hypoglycemia, alleged staff and doctors were negligent and acted outside the medical standards of care after the unexplained drop in blood sugar was discovered.

McDermott, 82, a retired sergeant in the U.S. Army, was admitted to the hospital on April 6, 2018, and was a patient on Floor 3A at the medical center. He died April 9, 2018,

Federal authorities are investigating the deaths of patients at the medical center occurring around the same time and on the same floor. A person of interest in the deaths who was a nursing assistant at the facility was fired from the medical center.

No charges have been filed. A grand jury in Clarksburg has issued subpoenas.

A message for comment from the medical center was not immediately returned.

The medical center, prior to McDermott’s death, experienced a noticeably high death rate on Floor 3A, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia in Wheeling by attorney Tony L. O’Dell of the law firm of Tiano and O’Dell in Charleston, who represents several of the families of the veterans who died at the medical center. The hospital had an obligation to protect McDermott from the wrongful conduct and acts of “third persons, including members of the VAMC staff,” the lawsuit said.

A pattern emerged on Floor 3A during the 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. night shift of incidents from unexplained sudden and severe unexplained hypoglycemia, the lawsuit said. Staff during the shift knew the high number of patients experiencing sudden unexplained declines in their condition was abnormal and knew the floor rate for such hypoglycemic events “was unheard of in the national hospital industry,” the lawsuit said.

McDermott’s case was similar to the pattern, the lawsuit said.

“There was a complete lack of proper medical investigation and treatment regarding Mr. McDermott’s severe hypoglycemia while there was still an opportunity to provide medical help for the condition,” the lawsuit said. “This had become and continued to be, a pattern and practice of the Clarksburg VAMC when caring for several other similarly situated veterans who were admitted to 3A.”

The facility, which did not inform the family of the circumstances of McDermott’s death, failed to identify and report the death as an adverse sentinel event that met criteria for an autopsy, the lawsuit said. An adverse sentinel event is defined by the VA as an unexpected occurrence involving death.

An autopsy on McDermott was performed six months after he died, the lawsuit said.

“By the time medical center Director (Dr. Glenn Snider Jr.) alerted the Office of Inspector General, the watchdog arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs, that many Floor 3A night shift sudden severe hypoglycemia deaths had occurred, emergency department staff openly commented that if patients were admitted to Floor 3A they would die, and there was active communication among the Clarksburg VAMC staff, including Dr. Snider and the Leadership Team, about the unexplained deaths before those deaths were ever reported to the (inspector general),” the lawsuit said.

The medical center had a “pattern and practice of failing to identify, report and track sentinel events and failing to perform appropriate root cause analysis investigations to prevent similar future events from re-occurring within the facility,” the lawsuit said.

Snider in August said the inspector general was informed as soon as the allegations of misconduct were discovered in 2018. The inspector general has led the investigation since June 2018.

The lawsuit also alleges the night shift on Floor 3A experienced sudden and severe declines in patient condition leading to their deaths as early as July 20, 2017.

Defendants in the suit are the United States and Secretary Robert Wilkie of the Department of Veterans Affairs. It seeks unspecified monetary damages, including funeral and burial expenses, loss of companionship and loss of veteran benefits.

A notice of claim filed last year by Proctor was the first disclosure that an investigation was underway at the medical center of deaths of veterans who died under similar circumstances and that there was a person of interest.

Seven people have so far been publicly identified as victims. The family of the latest reported victim, who died in January 2018, wished to remain anonymous.

At least two have been determined to be homicides, McDermott and George Nelson Shaw Sr. on April 10, 2018. The others are: Archie Edgell, 84, March 26, 2018; William “Sport” Holloway, 96, April 8, 2018; John William Hallman, 87, June 13, 2018; and Russell Posey Sr., 92, July 13, 2018.

(Mancini can be contacted at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com)