Human experiments scandal at Arkansas VA hospital unearthed
The Washington Times has an exclusive report today on a disturbing scandal at a veteran's hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas:
The experiments on veterans at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock were rife with procedural violations. According to the Times:
But perhaps most disturbing is that the hospital apparently attempted to cover up over 100 deaths of veterans who took part in the experiments:
An investigation of research conducted at an Arkansas veterans hospital has uncovered rampant violations in its human experiments program, including missing consent forms, secret HIV testing and failure to report more than 100 deaths of subjects participating in studies.The Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to release the findings of an internal investigation today.
The experiments on veterans at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock were rife with procedural violations. According to the Times:
[E]ntire consent forms were missing, signatures were missing from consent forms, HIV testing was conducted without documented consent, and research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in a study involving patients with dementia.To give a sense of the scale: 1,400 veterans were tested in one cancer experiment. A random review of 105 files found only 20 had consent forms.
But perhaps most disturbing is that the hospital apparently attempted to cover up over 100 deaths of veterans who took part in the experiments:
Additionally, the investigation found that researchers had failed to report "serious adverse events" during the experiments, including the deaths of 105 veterans. The researchers were required to report such events, regardless of whether they were accidental or linked to the experiments, to the Internal Review Board.The story comes over a year after the shocking scandals of poor veteran care surfaced at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Virginia, which The Washington Post reported were only examples of a VA system that is failing the nation's 24.3 million veterans, including over 600,000 veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq:
Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey.Perhaps this is why U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake has issued a directive that prohibits voter registration at VA facilities?
Labels: arkansas, department of veterans affairs, human experiments, veterans, washington post, washington times
3 Comments:
This story from the Washington Times is based on the draft IG report, which contains errors. I sincerely hope the final IG report, which is not yet released, has corrected these errors. The allegation about the death of more than 100 patients who were being "experimented on", for example, is very misleading, because the study in question was strictly observational and involved no interventions by the researchers. the patients were terminal cancer patients receiving "standard of care" medical treatments. I hope the record will be set straight as more information about this comes out.
I sincerely hope the investigation reveals the extent to which veterans at the VA Hospital in Little Rock, AR are medically neglected. Unless you have had to deal with this facility and know first hand the neglect of the patients and the complete ignorance of the doctor's that killed my father, you have no right to defend them. This facility allowed my father to die in order to cover up the ineptness of his "doctors in training" and their complete disregard for his well being. He spent weeks and weeks in excruciating pain and dying, all the while being told he wasn't dying.
I truly and sincerely hope someone puts a stop to this abuse. I had no power to do so and everyone I contacted was too afraid of the Federal Government to assist me after the VA in Little Rock murdered my father.
This is now online:
http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/aug/05/report-claims-va-hospital-troubled/
In it, many of the allegations of the Washington Times article are rebutted.
Arkansas Online
Report claims VA hospital troubled
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System faces claims that it destroyed documents from human experiments and failed to report the deaths of more than 100 study subjects, a charge a top state official describes as overblown.
The Washington Times reported Tuesday that a report by the Veterans Affairs Administration’s inspector general’s office outlined the problems at the hospitals. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson told The Associated Press that some of those studies involved researchers on the faculty of the state’s medical school, but denied the newspaper’s claim that there was no supervision.
Most of the studies “were low risk. I honestly don’t believe a single patient died because of this,” Dodd said Tuesday. “This doesn’t make sense.”
The newspaper said the investigation began last year and reviewed human experiments involving the study of colon, breast and prostate cancer that had been conducted since 2006.
The newspaper said the investigation found that researchers had failed to report “serious adverse events” during the experiments, including the deaths of 105 veterans. The researchers were required to report such events to UAMS’ Internal Review Board, regardless of whether they were accidental or linked to the experiments, according to the Times.
Dodd said the tests on those with breast cancer involved giving a patient a strong caffeine pill to find out how they metabolized the stimulant. Those tested gave urine samples several hours later, Dodd said.
The researcher heading the study later got permission to destroy documents identifying those involved in the study, the chancellor said.
“The investigator was worried (that), if the names ever got out, it would be a shame for the participating people,” Dodd said.
Those with prostate cancer underwent a second biopsy as part of their study, Dodd said.
The newspaper said the report found that some consent forms were missing, that others were missing signatures, that HIV testing was conducted without evidence of consent, and that research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in a study involving patients with dementia.
Dodd said the HIV testing only affected two participants in a study involving exercise and amino acids. Dodd said those conducting the survey didn’t realize they couldn’t do the test and were told to no longer do them.
The dementia study, involving videotaping those with the ailment as they walked around, failed to get signatures from 22 of the 26 involved, Dodd said. He said the study was immediately stopped and those involved “have lost their ability to do research.”
“It was just bad form,” Dodd said.
Dodd declined to release the university’s response to the inspector general Tuesday, saying he would wait for the report to be given to Congress. Dodd said he believed that report would be released Wednesday.
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