Wrongful Insulin Injection ruled homicide at Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center

Veteran Affairs Sued Over Westmoreland County Veteran’s Death From Wrongful Insulin Injection

CBS Pittsburgh
March 3, 2020

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges an unnamed employee who administered the injection was not qualified to be a nursing assistant and that hospital staff failed to take appropriate action to stop the employee from giving the shots.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A woman is suing the federal government over the 2018 death of her father from a wrongful insulin injection at a West Virginia veterans hospital.

Melanie Proctor filed the lawsuit Monday against Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie. It details a “widespread system of failures” at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg that led to the death of her father, former Army Sgt. Felix Kirk McDermott.

Federal prosecutors have said they are probing the deaths of up to 11 patients at the hospital.

Proctor’s lawsuit said McDermott, 82, was admitted to the hospital for shortness of breath and concern for food aspiration pneumonia on April 6, 2018. He was placed on antibiotics. He had no medical history of diabetes and there was no order for insulin to be administered to him.

An autopsy performed more than six months later at an air base in Dover, Delaware, determined McDermott had received an insulin injection and his death was ruled a homicide, the lawsuit said.

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Veterans lives saved by boxing club?

'They Saved My Life,' Boxing Club Provides a Healing Outlet for Veterans

The Associated Press
By Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Diana Nelson Jones
7 Jul 2019

Boxing isn't for every veteran who needs an outlet, but for those it does help, it is a testament to the power of physical activity in improving mental health

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Brandy Horchak-Jevsjukova, left, helps Tysh Wagner with stretches after a workout at Warrior's Call Boxing in Baden on Monday, June 10, 2019. Wagner served two tours of duty as a medic in Afghanistan and says the boxing workout helps her heal from the trauma of her war experiences. Horchak-Jevsjukova, co-owner of Warrior's Call, served in Iraq. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

BADEN, Pa. (AP) — Brandy Horchak-Jevsjukova jokes that she is Tyshie Wagner's service dog.

A veteran's service dog is trained to lean into her to provide comfort, to stand watch behind her, to jump up or paw her to interrupt a crisis.

Brandy has leaned into Tyshie persistently since they met in 2017, when Tyshie was almost 400 pounds, terrified of leaving her house, and imagining — and once attempting — suicide. She had gone through several therapists and had a husband who was at his wits' end.

Cutting through the chronology of their story, we arrive at the Warrior's Call Boxing Club in Baden, Beaver County, one recent morning.

Brandy and her husband, Vitali Jevsjukova, whom everyone calls "V," opened the club in 2015 to be the help to veterans that boxing had been for them during their military service in Iraq.
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UPMC chaplain among wounded in synagogue mass shooting

Veteran police officer, UPMC chaplain among wounded in synagogue mass shooting

Pittsburg Post Gazette
Shelly Bradbury
October 28, 2018

Pittsburgh police officer Tim Matson is seen here after receiving an award at the 19th Annual Law Enforcement Agency Directors Awards Ceremony on Jan. 27, 2017. Officer Matson was one of four officers wounded in the Squirrel Hill synagogue mass shooting on Oct. 27, 2018.

A veteran Pittsburgh police officer known for keeping his cool under pressure and using humor to defuse tense situations was one of four officers wounded while responding to an active shooter Saturday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

Pittsburgh police Officer Timothy Matson cracked jokes in his hospital room Sunday, a day after he was shot multiple times and critically injured while confronting the shooter who killed 11 people.

“We were in his hospital room today, visiting, and as soon as we walk in he’s already cracking jokes,” Cmdr. Jason Lando said. “He’s in that situation, where his life is the one in danger, and everyone is so worried about him — but he’s cracking jokes and it makes everyone feel better.”

That’s just the type of guy he is, Cmdr. Lando said. Officer Matson joined the department in 2005 and was assigned to Zone 5. He has been a part of the city’s SWAT team since 2016.

“When bullets are flying and people’s lives are in danger, Tim Matson is the guy you want going through the door,” Cmdr. Lando said. “He’s the guy who goes in and calmly gets the job done.”

An online fundraising campaign for Officer Matson raised nearly $20,000 Sunday.
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What actually defines us, are actions like this!

Evil shall not define us

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 28, 2018

Most of today, I have been listening to the news reports about the massacre in Pittsburgh. Yesterday I had let a comment on Google+ that the people had gone to pray and worship and someone went to kill them because they did.

It was shocking, but we have had many times such as this. It is easier to think of all the bad that came out of the murder's hatred.

CNN just reported on the mass murder in Pittsburgh.These are the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting but when we think of how one person hated so much, we may tend to think that actions based on hatred have become what defines us.

What actually defines us, are actions like this!

People hold candles outside the Tree of Life Synagogue after a shooting there left 11 people dead in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018.

Maybe the thing that scares us the most, is, we know the next time it could be anyone deciding to take out their misery on others. Maybe it is because we also know, it could happen anywhere, at anytime.

Easy to have our thoughts go in that direction. It is easy to want to stay in the safety of our homes, behind locked doors. Easy to shop online instead of going out in public. Easy to keep our kids home and teach them there, instead of sending them to school. Easy to communicate with strangers on our cell phones, than to sit and talk, eye to eye, as if they deserved your full attention.

It has become easy to justify being offended by the least little thing, as if everyone else should bow down and let them have their own way. Being offended has become a full time cause, feeding into those who hate instead of finding what binds us by what we communicate.

What is hard, is not what is done by evil acts. That is always something easy for them to do. What defines us is, what we do in response.

When we refuse to stop worshiping, as we choose, that defines us.

When we refuse to stop going shopping and being out with others, that defines us.

When we refuse to settle for what is, because we are constantly thinking of what could be, that defines us.

When we refuse to let an act of pure hate take one moment of love from our hearts, that defines us too.

When we see someone in need and refuse to walk away, that defines us. 

When we see someone being abused and refuse to think it is their problem and not ours, that defines us.

When we stand against what some of our friends think is OK, and we refuse to remain silent, that defines us.


We have witnessed many, far too many, acts committed by hatred to have forgotten how time and time again, we respond with love and compassion for the victims, support for the survivors and gratefulness for the First Responders. We also do it with a tremendous amount of courage. 

One person acts out of hate, hundreds respond with compassion.

That is what we will be defined by!