Vietnam vet found covered with ants in nursing home bed dies after being bitten more than 100 times

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,986
3,320
126
Things are really screwed up!! We ought to treat our veterans better than this.....
Whatever happened to Compassionate Conservatism??


A Vietnam War veteran was bitten more than 100 times all over his body by ants while he lay in poor health in his bed on the campus of an Atlanta Veteran Affairs hospital just days before he passed away.


Laquna Ross, the daughter of Air Force veteran Joel Marrable, was visiting her father at the Eagle's Nest Community Living Center, a nursing home for veterans on the Atlanta VA Medical Center campus, where he was being treated for cancer, when she noticed her father's hands were swollen and his body was covered with red bumps.


Ross said she alerted a medical center staffer to her father's new ailments and was "worried and confused because that wasn't how he looked when I saw him the last time," she told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV

"[The staff member] said, 'You know, the ants,'" Ross said. "The staff member says to me, 'When we walked in here, we thought Mr. Marrable was dead. We thought he wasn't even alive, because the ants were all over him.'"


Marrable died just days later.


"Yes, he had cancer. Yes, he was going to die," Ross said. "If it didn't promote his body to die quicker, what is the protocol within the VA just to manage when something like this happens?"


The Atlanta VA Hospital released a statement in response to Marrable's case describing the actions they had taken including stripping all the bedrooms and inspecting them for ants, removing all open food containers, hiring a pest control company to do an inspection and purchasing plastic containers for the resident's snacks.


"The Atlanta VA Health Care System leadership team has been notified that ants were found in our Community Living Center and impacting patients. CLC staff immediately cared for the Veterans and took action to ensure no other CLC residents were impacted. We would like to express our heartfelt remorse and apology to the Veterans' families and have reached out to them to offer appropriate assistance," the statement read.
(MORE: When small bugs cause big problems: This insect's bite can lead to heart disease)
After the incident, Ross said that the health center workers bathed Marrable and cleaned his room, but the next day, the ants came back. He was then moved to a new room where he would later die, according to WSB-TV.
"Atlanta VA Health Care System always strives to provide Veterans with the very best health care available. When we don't meet that standard, we hold ourselves accountable.

That's why we have initiated a fact finding on the nursing and environmental care processes to ensure we are providing safe and effective care," the Atlanta VA Hospital statement concluded.


Ross said her father "deserved better."


"His room had ants, the ceiling, the walls, the beds. They were everywhere," she said. "He served his country in the Air Force, and I think that he deserved better."
 

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,146
4,844
136
DJT likes veterans who don't require a nursing home....right? The VA seems to be suffering from people who don't give a care about anything other than themselves. There's been a lot of publicized incidents lately over care related deaths at their facilities.

I can tell you that I've been waiting over 3 months for their new and improved community care system to approve outside care since they can't see me internally here in Jax.
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,227
16,687
136
Why are VA Hospitals such a problem for every administration?
Really a #bothsides issue.

All I can figure is to run them you need to:
Fund them (Republicans hate this idea)
Inspect them & modify staff (Democrat’s like the inspect part but despise the fire people part)
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
126
Why are VA Hospitals such a problem for every administration?
Really a #bothsides issue.

All I can figure is to run them you need to:
Fund them (Republicans hate this idea)
Inspect them & modify staff (Democrat’s like the inspect part but despise the fire people part)


Welcome to the health care that many crave. Oh, the answer is that any government agency is reg driven so you can expect the same. Some times the VA gets things right but when they screw up (too often) this is what happens. When things cost more than anticipated to provide the expected level of care then it's a choice between that and money. Guess which always wins?

But this is what people ask for even if they say no, with no thought given to what happens next.

So be it.
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,227
16,687
136
Welcome to the health care that many crave. Oh, the answer is that any government agency is reg driven so you can expect the same. Some times the VA gets things right but when they screw up (too often) this is what happens. When things cost more than anticipated to provide the expected level of care then it's a choice between that and money. Guess which always wins?

But this is what people ask for even if they say no, with no thought given to what happens next.

So be it.

Meh, I’ll happily take the healthcare my Father in Law had at the VA.
Long term illness nearly zero bills, yes he had to occasionally wait but I’ll take free care with a 3-10 day wait vs pay for care with a 2 day wait.
 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
33,952
8,002
136
Things are really screwed up!! We ought to treat our veterans better than this.....
Whatever happened to Compassionate Conservatism??

Trickle down turned it broke. Like, literally, out of funding.
Sure we could treat people better, but NIMBY... or rather, not from my wallet you aren't!

And why do people feel so stingy? That is partly thanks to America's unique position of being the most expensive nation. Our costs are translated into a fear of poverty, of not having enough. Which turns into a FYGM attitude. In a time of such desperation, looking out for #1 spreads like a cancer. People need to be dragged back, kicking and screaming if must be, into caring for one another. If that means the taxes to do it - then so be it. We cannot sit idly by and do nothing while the flames of inequality burns the United States down around us.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
126
Meh, I’ll happily take the healthcare my Father in Law had at the VA.
Long term illness nearly zero bills, yes he had to occasionally wait but I’ll take free care with a 3-10 day wait vs pay for care with a 2 day wait.

Do you think this guy and others like him would be happy assuming they lived? As I said the VA can do things right but try to coordinate care as a provider and good luck.
 
Feb 4, 2009
35,227
16,687
136
Do you think this guy and others like him would be happy assuming they lived? As I said the VA can do things right but try to coordinate care as a provider and good luck.

Do I think any rational person would choose pay for insurance based care over free care given the choice?
I’ll take free all the time, the guy lived to a good age. I see no value to paying 10s-100s of thousands of dollars to live an additional 6-18 months being bed ridden or over medicated. No thank you.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
126
There is no "free". Why would you ever think that? My retirement is gone except for $700 bucks and it went to living expenses and medical after my heart attack so yeah I get that. Nevertheless, people are praising care that needs to be better and universal coverage I'm all over. We shoot low though and wind up with less than that.

This needs to be a Constitutional issue I believe. Three branches are no longer acceptable as those with control are as clueless as Redditors and that's not entirely their fault because they don't have nearly enough time to make decisions based on what others provide. It will be Barr and the Mueller report all over with no one having the time and training to construct a system vastly greater than the VA, which should be part of any universal system. But improving care itself? Who want's that.
 

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
11,715
8,177
136
Seriously the guy would have been happier spending his twilight years with nice Mexican whores and booze. I guarantee that they would have taken better care of him than those under Trump.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,205
10,865
136
Things are really screwed up!! We ought to treat our veterans better than this.....
Whatever happened to Compassionate Conservatism??


A Vietnam War veteran was bitten more than 100 times all over his body by ants while he lay in poor health in his bed on the campus of an Atlanta Veteran Affairs hospital just days before he passed away.


Laquna Ross, the daughter of Air Force veteran Joel Marrable, was visiting her father at the Eagle's Nest Community Living Center, a nursing home for veterans on the Atlanta VA Medical Center campus, where he was being treated for cancer, when she noticed her father's hands were swollen and his body was covered with red bumps.


Ross said she alerted a medical center staffer to her father's new ailments and was "worried and confused because that wasn't how he looked when I saw him the last time," she told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV

"[The staff member] said, 'You know, the ants,'" Ross said. "The staff member says to me, 'When we walked in here, we thought Mr. Marrable was dead. We thought he wasn't even alive, because the ants were all over him.'"


Marrable died just days later.


"Yes, he had cancer. Yes, he was going to die," Ross said. "If it didn't promote his body to die quicker, what is the protocol within the VA just to manage when something like this happens?"


The Atlanta VA Hospital released a statement in response to Marrable's case describing the actions they had taken including stripping all the bedrooms and inspecting them for ants, removing all open food containers, hiring a pest control company to do an inspection and purchasing plastic containers for the resident's snacks.


"The Atlanta VA Health Care System leadership team has been notified that ants were found in our Community Living Center and impacting patients. CLC staff immediately cared for the Veterans and took action to ensure no other CLC residents were impacted. We would like to express our heartfelt remorse and apology to the Veterans' families and have reached out to them to offer appropriate assistance," the statement read.
(MORE: When small bugs cause big problems: This insect's bite can lead to heart disease)
After the incident, Ross said that the health center workers bathed Marrable and cleaned his room, but the next day, the ants came back. He was then moved to a new room where he would later die, according to WSB-TV.
"Atlanta VA Health Care System always strives to provide Veterans with the very best health care available. When we don't meet that standard, we hold ourselves accountable.

That's why we have initiated a fact finding on the nursing and environmental care processes to ensure we are providing safe and effective care," the Atlanta VA Hospital statement concluded.


Ross said her father "deserved better."


"His room had ants, the ceiling, the walls, the beds. They were everywhere," she said. "He served his country in the Air Force, and I think that he deserved better."
Out of site out of mind. Just love human warehousing. Pray for legal suicide.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,562
3,031
136
To be fair non-vets get treated the same way. My sister's friends mother had holes in her body from bed sores because they didn't bother to rotate her a couple of times a day.