A Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in West Virginia is under investigation for allegations of sexual assault, prompting the firing of an employee.
The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general’s office is investigating Beckley VA Medical Center in Beckley, W.V., the office said, according to CNN.
Sara Yoke, a spokeswoman for Beckley, said the hospital reported the sexual assault allegations to the inspector general on June 12 and fired someone in connection with the accusations.
Details of the fired employee have not been shared, nor has additional information about the alleged assault.
A statement from the inspector general’s office said it “takes seriously any allegation on calling into question the care of veterans. The facility is aware of these allegations and has taken steps to ensure the immediate safety of its patients.”
The sexual assault allegations come just weeks after another hospital in W.V. was investigated for a series of deaths.
Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia was investigated “as soon as potential criminal conduct was discovered,” said the inspector general’s office.
Questions began to swirl when the family of George Nelson Shaw, a recently deceased veteran, requested to have the body examined for foul play. Investigators told the family that Shaw had not died of natural causes, but he had been killed.
“We put all our trust and faith into that hospital to take care of him, and in the end? We got nothing, absolutely nothing,” Shaw’s daughter said.
According to USA Today, a second patient, Felix McDermott, an Army veteran, was “injected with a fatal dose of insulin, either negligently or willfully, by an unidentified person,” said a claim filed by his family.
At least nine other patients at the hospital died of low blood sugar before McDermott’s death, the claim said.
