Vietnam Veteran Died Because Aide Played Video Game

A nurse’s aide plays video games while a veteran dies at Bedford VA hospital

Boston Globe
By Andrea Estes GLOBE STAFF
OCTOBER 17, 2017

Bill Nutter was very sick. Not only had he just lost his second leg to diabetes, but he also suffered from a condition that could cause his heart to stop beating without warning.

JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF
Brigitte Darton’s father, William Nutter, a Vietnam War veteran, died at the Bedford VA hospital despite the facility’s staff knowing that he needed to be checked on frequently

But his daughter, Brigitte Darton, felt reassured because her mother had found a bed for the ailing Vietnam veteran and retired police detective at the Bedford VA Medical Center. He would be under the watchful eyes of the staff at a hospital ranked by the Veterans Administration as one of its best nationwide.

So Darton went on a long-planned family vacation in July 2016, only to get a shocking call from her mother the next day. “Your father passed away,” Carol Nutter said. “He didn’t wake up.”

A doctor eventually told Carol Nutter that a staff member on the night shift had failed to check on him hourly, as she should have.
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Maryland VA official forged documents, obtained $1.4 million in benefits

U.S. Attorney: Former Maryland VA official forged documents, obtained $1.4 million in benefits
ABC 2 News
Amy Aubert
Dec 26, 2014

BALTIMORE - A 68-year-old U.S. Army veteran and former Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs official was charged with collecting $1.4 million in benefits fraudulently, according to the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

"I think it was a situation where he recognized that he had this authority that nobody is looking over his shoulder," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein says 68-year-old David Clark drafted fake letters and documents that made certain veterans appear to be eligible for a federal V.A. settlement program. Rosenstein said the V.A. started the program as an effort to settle claims of veterans suffering from diabetes. To be eligible for the up to $20,000 per year compensation, applicants have to be a veteran who served in Vietnam and presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, which may have caused diabetes.

"He was the person responsible for certifying that these were authentic documents. So, he would certify the documents, then pass them on to the federal V.A., which would approve them based on Mr. Clark's certifications," Rosenstein said.
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Crews on C-123 planes after the Vietnam War Battle Agent Orange

VA Is Bracing for a New Front in the Agent Orange Battle
National Journal
Jordain Carney
October 8, 2014

In 2011, Wes Carter was talking to a handful of friends when he realized they had something in common: They all flew on the C-123 planes after the Vietnam War, and they were all sick.

During the Vietnam War, C-123s were used to spray the herbicide Agent Orange. Although the planes were being used for cargo and medical flights by the time Carter served after the war, he and his fellow veterans believe their illnesses—which range from diabetes to cancer—are tied to their time on the planes between 1972 and 1982.

“We were physically scraping goop from nooks and crannies trying to get the thing as clean as possible, because there’s quite an odor to it,” said Carter, 68, who flew on a C-123 plane and believes that his prostate cancer and heart disease are tied to his time in the service.

So far, C-123 veterans have had little luck getting their disability claims granted.

Last year, C-123 pilot Paul Bailey, who died in October 2013 after suffering from prostate cancer, became the first of Carter’s group to get his exposure to Agent Orange recognized without having to seek help from the Board of Veterans Appeals.
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Documentary on Agent Orange Deliverer of Death and Deformities

Defoliated Island: Agent Orange, Okinawa And The Vietnam War
Published on Jan 23, 2014
This is the English-language version of Defoliated Island, a Japanese award-winning documentary about the usage of Agent Orange on Okinawa during the Vietnam War.

Produced by Okinawa TV station, QAB, the show won national acclaim in Japan when it was first aired in May 2012.

VA officials probe how its hospital treated blind Las Vegas veteran

UPDATE
VA investigators sent text messages in North Las Vegas probe

VA officials probe how its hospital treated blind Las Vegas veteran
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
November 27, 2013

Sandi Niccum is shown slumped in a hospital waiting room on one of her last days. She was blind and in severe pain. (Courtesy Dee Redwine)

The House Veterans Affairs Committee and local VA officials are probing allegations that staff at the VA Medical Center in North Las Vegas mistreated a blind veteran who was writhing in pain while she waited six hours for emergency care at the center on Oct. 22.

The long wait compounded by frustration with incomplete radiology orders and alleged rude treatment increased 78-year-old Sandi Niccum’s frustration to the point that she would pound her walking cane on the hospital floor.

“Several times she would just beat it on the floor and say, ‘Please somebody help me.’ But they didn’t. Nobody cared,” said Niccum’s friend, Dee Redwine, who was with her through the ordeal.

The Navy veteran, described by her aide, Shirley Newsham, as a “brittle diabetic,” had been a volunteer for the VA’s Visually Impairment Services Team for at least eight years. She died Nov. 15 at a local hospice.

Before she died, Niccum asked Redwine to write a chronology of the VA experience and submit it to the Review-Journal.

Her blindness stemmed from diabetes developed during her fifth year of active duty with the Navy Medical Corps as a medic for the Marine Corps at Parris Island, S.C. She was honorably discharged in 1958. She lost vision in one eye in 1983 and the other eye three years later.

Suffering from septic shock from the ruptured abscess in her colon, she died in her sleep about 2 a.m. on Nov. 15. The exact cause of death was unknown, Redwine said.

Niccum’s ashes will be buried at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City at 10 a.m. on Dec. 12 with full military honors.

Donations can be made in her name to the Blinded Veterans Association, P.O. Box 46272, Las Vegas, NV 89114.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.

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Manhattan VA Center One Of Slowest To Process Veterans' Claims

Manhattan VA Center One Of Slowest To Process Veterans' Claims
Newsday
By Martin C Evans
Posted: 04/30/2013

The New York-area center that processes veterans' disability claims is one of the slowest in the country, taking nearly four times longer than the Department of Veterans Affairs' targeted schedule, federal data show.

Veterans filing disability claims for ailments such as bomb blast brain injuries, spinal fractures, post-traumatic stress disorder or maladies related to Agent Orange exposure wait an average 480 days before the claim is processed at the department's Manhattan office.

The VA's target for handling claims is 125 days. As of April 27, 11,914 claims were pending in the New York office. Nearly three-quarters of them languished longer than 125 days.

Paul Plante said he waited nearly two years for a response.

Plante, 63, a Vietnam War vet, filed the claim with the Manhattan office when he could no longer hold a job as a painter because Type 2 diabetes left him with no feeling in his lower left leg.

But despite nearly two years of repeated inquiries, the Huntington resident got no answer until his congressman, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), had his staff call the VA on his behalf.
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Disabled veteran wins gold medals at regional games

Disabled veteran wins gold medals at regional games
April 26, 2013
BY JANICE GIBBS
TELEGRAM STAFF

At age 69, Bill Scales, a double amputee and a patient at the Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center, competed in his first Paralympics, bringing home gold medals in shot put, discus and javelin.

The Texas Regional Games of the Paralympics were held a couple of weeks ago in San Antonio and three Temple VA patients competed.

The experience put things in perspective, Scales said. There was always someone else competing who had a more challenging disability.

“I watched a blind man run 13 laps around the track,” he said. “Of course he had someone running with him to keep him in the right lane, but to run 13 laps, that in itself is amazing.”

Mike Weaver, adaptive sports coordinator for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, which includes the Temple VA, encouraged Scales to participate in the San Antonio games.

"Motivating the generation of veterans who are 55 and older is important for both the individuals and the VA, he said."

“Getting them off the couch and active means they’ll be physically and mentally healthier, which is a benefit to the veterans and the VA,” he said.
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Studies show stress really can break your heart

Studies show stress really can break your heart
By Marilynn Marchione
Associated Press

Stress does bad things to the heart. New studies have found higher rates of cardiac problems in veterans with PTSD, New Orleans residents six years after Hurricane Katrina and Greeks struggling through that country's financial turmoil.

Disasters and prolonged stress can raise "fight or flight" hormones that affect blood pressure, blood sugar and other things in ways that make heart trouble more likely, doctors say. They also provoke anger and helplessness and spur heart-harming behaviors like eating or drinking too much.

"We're starting to connect emotions with cardiovascular risk markers" and the new research adds evidence of a link, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.

She had no role in the studies, which were discussed Sunday at an American College of Cardiology conference in San Francisco.

The largest, involving 207,954 veterans in California and Nevada ages 46 to 74, compared those with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, to those without it. They were free of major heart disease and diabetes when researchers checked their Veterans Administration medical records from 2009 and 2010.
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VA fix-it funds help modify home for Vietnam veteran

VA fix-it funds help modify home for Vietnam veteran
By Anita Creamer
Modesto Bee
Wednesday, Jul. 18, 2012

When he was 20, Otis Dorsey served a year installing communications lines in Vietnam, a world away from the tiny Alabama town where he was raised. After completing his stint in the Army, he came home unhurt, or so he thought for the next few decades.

"I remember them spraying Agent Orange," said Dorsey, now 66, who lives in south Sacramento and is retired from a 25-year career with the federal government. "We were out there working while they were spraying.

"We got damp from it, but they told us it wasn't nothing that would kill you. It would kill the vegetation."

Today, he suffers from type 2 diabetes, diagnosed in 1990 when he was only 44, and Parkinson's disease, diagnosed eight years ago. Both diseases are among the ailments the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs links with Agent Orange exposure.

Diabetic complications led to the amputation of Dorsey's right leg, and he has cellulitis in his left leg. He also developed kidney problems as well as congestive heart failure.

"Gosh, what else have you had?" said his wife, Diane Jones Dorsey, 59, a retired state analyst.

"I'm still up and moving," her husband replied. "I try to keep a positive attitude."

To help him keep moving, and to help make the rest of the world accessible to him, a $63,780 Veterans Affairs grant last year renovated the Dorseys' home, which they bought in 1984, and adapted it to his mobility and medical needs.
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Vietnam Vet falls victim to phone scam

Monticello couple falls victim to phone scam
6:44 AM, Jun 17, 2011
Written by
Boua Xiong

Warren "Hawkeye" Fordham fought diabetes to serve his country

Warren Fordham: Diabetes was Navy officer's constant foe

By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel
June 3, 2011

SANFORD — Warren J. Fordham fought diabetes to serve his country.

The retired lieutenant commander, who once piloted bombers and oversaw operations at the Pinecastle Bombing Range in the Ocala National Forest, also was an insulin-dependent diabetic forced to prove his fitness for duty every year during the final decade of a 30-year career, said his son, Michael Fordham, 63.

"He loved his country," Michael Fordham said. "He would not let it stop him."

Warren Fordham, 84, who lived the past 50 years in Sanford, where he first was assigned to the former Naval Air Station, died Tuesday from complications from a stroke. He struggled with diabetes for more than 50 years.

Fordham, known affectionately by the nickname "Hawkeye" for his sharpshooting basketball skills in high school, enlisted in the Navy as a teenager near the end of World War II and worked his way up the chain of command until the disease threatened to derail his career.

Fordham refused to leave the service — even hiring a military lawyer to argue his case in Washington and extend his career, his son said.

The Navy ultimately allowed him to stay, with some restrictions.

The former pilot and navigator, for instance, was no longer permitted to fly an airplane because of the disease's potential risks. But he became an inspector of aircraft carriers and performed other non-combat duties.

"He was all about duty, honor, country and family," said his daughter, Robin Crockett, 62, of Sanford.
Diabetes was Navy officer's constant foe

Diabetes now tops Vietnam vets' claims

It never fails to amaze me that this nation can be so good at spending money on the machinery of the Department of Defense but we never really do seem to be able to plan on taking care of the men and women we send. Congressman Filner said in Orlando on Sunday that the price of war should always take into account the wounded, but somehow the Presidents and planners of wars never seem to think of this. The survival rate is higher than ever and troops are surviving wounds that would have killed them on the spot during other wars but while they do make it back home to their families, the care of these men and women will need to be taken care of, and rightly so, for the rest of their lives. We spent as a nation a boat load of money over the years to find ways of keeping the wounded alive but that never seemed to translate into the money that would be needed to make sure they had what they needed for the rest of their lives.

All these years later the "good idea of Agent Orange" still does not have a price tag on it. How many years do you think it will take before the rest of good ideas the DOD has used surfaces in the lives of our troops from other wars?

Diabetes now tops Vietnam vets' claims
By MIKE BAKER (AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. — By his own reckoning, a Navy electrician spent just eight hours in Vietnam, during a layover on his flight back to the U.S. in 1966. He bought some cigarettes and snapped a few photos.

The jaunt didn't make for much of a war story, and there is no record it ever happened. But the man successfully argued that he may have been exposed to Agent Orange during his stopover and that it might have caused his diabetes — even though decades of research into the defoliant have failed to find more than a possibility that it causes the disease.

Because of worries about Agent Orange, about 270,000 Vietnam veterans — more than one-quarter of the 1 million receiving disability checks — are getting compensation for diabetes, according to Department of Veterans Affairs records obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act.

More Vietnam veterans are being compensated for diabetes than for any other malady, including post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss or general wounds.

Tens of thousands of other claims for common ailments of age — erectile dysfunction among them — are getting paid as well because of a possible link, direct or indirect, to Agent Orange.
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Diabetes now tops Vietnam vets' claims

6 Year old son saves Dad's life

Son Helps Save Father's Life
Saturday, September 19, 2009 9:26:01 PM
Reported By Emily Lampa

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS -- With hugs and kisses, Dammion Williams thanks his son Brenden for making the call that saved his life.

"He did save my life and I'm thankful for it," Williams said.

The soft-spoken youngster had little to say to the camera, but he showed us how he called the emergency number after finding his father in bed, not moving.

"He was brave enough to get on the phone and explain what happened," his dad said.
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http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/9/19/son_helps_save_father39s_life.html

Man who died saving girl was extremely ill young homeless man

Man who died saving girl was extremely ill

By BARBARA LaBOE, The Longview Daily News KELSO, Wash. (AP) - Allen Heck has been hailed a hero since running into the Cowlitz River last week to save a 9-year-old girl, losing his own life in the process. Unknown by most is that Heck was an extremely ill young homeless man with the simple goal of living to his 21st birthday.

The 20-year-old Longview man had drifted for about three years after diabetes barred him from the only job he ever wanted - serving in the Army. Directionless, he made some bad decisions, family and friends admit, and was living at the Community House shelter at the time of the drowning.

But despite frequent hospitalizations for diabetes and complications and the news he only had a few years to live, at best Heck kept trying to put his life back together, family and friends said. And his actions one week ago surprised no one who knew him.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/51747952.html

William Beaumont Army Medical Center Put Patients At Risk

Mistake At William Beaumont Hospital Puts Thousands At Risk
Video: Derek Shore Reports: Doctor Weighs in On Patient Risk
Video: Derek Shore Reports: WBAMC Patients May Be At Risk
Story: William Beaumont Patients Possible Exposure; Doctor Weighs In
Derek Shore-KFOX News Reporter
Thursday, February 5, 2009 – updated: 11:18 am MST February 6, 2009

EL PASO, Texas -- William Beaumont Army Medical Center announced Thursday that 2,114 diabetic patients treated at the hospital may be at risk for contracting blood-borne illnesses.

"I would like to say that the staff of William Beaumont Army Medical Center deeply regrets that this situation has occurred," Col. Jim Baumchauk, of William Beaumont, said.

Hospital administrators told KFOX, diabetic patients at the hospital were being injected with insulin improperly. A medical injection pen was being used on more than one patient. Even though the needle was changed with each patient, there are fears the insulin reservoir may have contained diseases from past patients, which has sparked the fear of contamination.
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