Veterans Affairs records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveal the startling fact that more than 500 vets have died in VA hospitals due to mistakes since 2010. Delayed treatment for cancer patients due to a failure to diagnose the disease and a failure to screen properly for suicide are two of the more common "adverse events" discovered in the documents. The 1,452 disclosures represent a miniscule portion of the hundreds of thousands of patients who are treated annually at VA hospitals, but they reveal for the first time a fuller picture of errors and lapses in medical coverage that affect veterans across the country. The disclosures include feeding tubes being placed in patients’ lungs, patients being sent home with undiagnosed rib and shoulder fractures, and in one case extracting the wrong tooth from a patient. But buried among the more common mistakes that occur in even the best hospitals—incorrect dosages, surgical equipment...(Read Full Post)