Liz Klimas:
- An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in 2011-2012 within Pittsburgh’s health care system for veterans has killed six and sickened 16.
- Lawmakers began requesting documents related to the outbreak in January and have called out the VA for a “lack of responsiveness.”
- One family is suing the VA for negligence and others are looking for answers as to why the water system wasn’t being maintained in a way to prevent such an outbreak.
- In the midst of the scandal involving the bacterial outbreak, management was given a positive review in evaluations.
- “These revelations paint a troubling picture of rampant mismanagement and incompetence among some officials within the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare system.” — Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)
A veterans hospital in Pittsburgh has been under scrutiny for more than half the year in a case of disease, cover up and what some are calling mismanagement. Now, a family has had enough and is suing for wrongful death, negligence and more.
It all stems from a report of a bacterial outbreak in 2011 and 2012 at the Pittsburgh VA, which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette most recently reported has killed six and sickened 16 to date.
The Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review have produced extensive reporting on the issue since it was called out by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs in January 2013. The committee sent a letter in April citing a “lack of responsiveness” by the VA to provide all documents and emails since 2007 discussing the presence of legionella bacteria within the VA’s Pittsburgh health facilities.
First, here’s a bit of background on the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that started to concern many about the care veterans were receiving at the time. According to an Inspector General report reviewing Legionnaires’ disease in the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System at the request of lawmakers, once veterans began testing positive for the bacterial disease, the CDC was able to identify nearly two dozen cases of it between 2011 and 2012, finding that VAPHS had “widespread colonization of Legionella” in its drinking water system.
Legionella is bacteria that can be inhaled through mist from water, which can lead to a type of pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease.
According to the IG report, although VAPHS instituted additional measures to act against the Legionella outbreak, there were several other items that allowed unsafe conditions to persist:
@Randy, #45:
It’s a bit tricky running a military bases’s emergency generators on coal. Using it to fuel jet fighters is even more difficult.
@Greg: @Greg: How about oil from the Keystone XL pipeline. You are really ignorant aren’t you Greg. Biofuel would not sustain the military at all. It would take more fossil fuel to make biofuel than is produced.
another vet
if you haven’t seen the movie, INDEPENDENCE DAY,
TRY TO SEE IT,’take my word, it’s very good.
BYE
@Greg: I’ll let you know who was right. My buddy who said the employee will have to appear in court or the supervisor who said he/she wouldn’t. Given that the supervisor backed off and said someone would have to look at it first before the employee goes to court indicates that even she knows the employee is going to have to go to court. My guess is that the VA board or whatever it is, will tell the employee that he/she is to appear in court especially considering it involves a crime directed toward the U.S. government. Like I said, my buddy does this for a living. In addition to investigating cases involving federal employees, being a federal employee himself means similar rules obviously apply to him as well so it’s not like he is talking out of his ass making this up.
@Randy, #52:
If that were the case, I doubt if Richard Branson would be investing heavily in the technology. He hasn’t become a billionaire four times over by being stupid.
The University of Minnesota is currently working on an advanced method of producing fuel refinery feed stock directly from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. The transformation is done by bacteria. Research is being done elsewhere on methods of transforming waste cellulose into ethanol. I can understand why special interests involved with the fossil fuel industry wouldn’t be happy with the prospect.
@another vet, #54:
I don’t doubt your friend knows the entire drill inside out, if that’s his job. He probably just didn’t go into all the details when he related the story.
@Greg:
Shows how much you know. Military generators run on diesel fuel while military jet engines run on JP5 Diesel fuel may be made from crude oil, while JP5 fuel is always refined from crude oil. The initial refining process for both are similar. Diesel oil can be made from coal and scientists have developed and successfully tested coal based jet fuel. The Air Force is experimenting on producing a new jet fuel made from coal that is even cleaner than their current jet fuels.
Coal is essential in steel production, firing the blast furnaces and the steel ingredient coke is made directly from coal.
Regardless of the efforts by misguided environmental-activist leftists, who are blinded by their own ideological propaganda, we will still need to using coal for a very, very long time.
Greg
maybe the processing is more costly as RANDY MENTIONED
and probably the knowledge to produce it on that grand scale
is not ready to go in a worthy money making desire to profit,
ON ANOTHER NOTE: THEY COULDN’T EVEN PRODUCE A WAY MORE IMPORTANT TO NEUTRALIZE OR EXTERMINATE THE EIDS MADE BY THE ENEMIES WITH THEIR FERTILIZER, SO IT HAS SHOWN ME HOW FAR THEY ARE FROM GRAND SCALE DISCOVERY, AND LEFT A SORE TO THE SCIENCE DEVELOPMENT,
THIS COULD HAVE AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE TOP RESEARCH
AND FROM ALL FRONTS, BUT NO ONE IN THE PEACEFUL WORLD
EVER FOUND THE SOLUTION WHICH WAS A PRIORITY,
WHILE THE LEADER KEPT SENDING WARRIORS IN THAT WAR-ZONE BLINDLY, NOT WORRIED FOR THEIR LIVES AND LOST OF LIMBS,
hell they even change the DAMN ROE, so to make it easier for them to be stepping on it,
THAT WILL REMAIN THE SHAME OF THOSE LEADER FOR NOT PUTTING HIS RESOURCES TOTALLY TO FIND THE SOLUTION SO TO PRESERVE THE LIVES OF THE SO MUCH MORE THEN THEY THEMSELVES ARE,
IMPORTANT MILITARY,
@Greg: As long as this administration is subsidizing biofuel and alternative at the expense of the military and military workers, Branson and Pickens will take advantage of it. You love carrying that water, Greg!
@ilovebeeswarzone: #47
Unfortunately, for many years the American entertainment industry has’t worried about FACTS when making moves. I’ll let others agree or disagree that Air Force doesn’t have a tail ramp, or an ejection module, just like most of the other movies that are made make up stuff like this.
Smorgasbord
ya it was weird at some point, but fun to look at, and no blood after so many punches
HARRISON WAS INTACT IN HIS FACE,
YES, I could have swear this president would not make it,
but it was to under estimate HARRISON FORD,
he sure had the juice to make it back
bye
Smorgasbord,
AFGHANISTAN, THREE MORE MILITARY DEAD,
THIS IS TERRIBLE, get out of there and
nuke the whole place
@ilovebeeswarzone:
Yet the MSM doesn’t like talk about the body count or name those military killed when it is a Democrat president. When Bush was in office, we were presented with daily tallies of losses, now that Obama is CIC the MSM only rarely brings it up.
Ditto
yes,
I got it at FOX THEY ALWAYS GIVE US THE TRUTH,
EVEN IF IT HURT TO READ IT,
BYE