Dallas VA psychiatric wing closed after 4th suicide in 4 months

by PegNews wire

Dallas VA

The recent suicide of a patient prompted Joseph Dalpiaz, the director of the VA North Texas Health Care System, to shut down Dallas VA hospital's psychiatric ward. The patient, who hanged himself on April 4, was the fourth suicide from the unit since January. Investigators from the national Veterans Affairs office will be in town next week to assess the safety of Dallas' psych ward.

In 1995, the Dallas VA was rated the worst in the country. Over the last half year, the hospital has spent more than $250,000 to eliminate structural suicide risks in the building.

Posted by Erin

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Anonymous

Brad LaRock, says:

Its too bad we ask people to lay their lives on the line for our country and then when they need medical help we send them to a hospital that is like doing your entire month's grocery shopping at a 7-11. Case in point. A friend of mine served in Viet Nam. Contracted Hep C over there, went undiagnosed for years and now needs a liver transplant. VA is no help, so he has begun a world wide search for a new organ. Perhaps you can help. Great guy, family man, wife, kids the whole 9 yards. www.hope4bruce.com

Here is his story. Bruce was born November 4th, 1950, to Del and Darleen Ohmann. He grew up in West St. Paul, Minnesota, and has lived here almost his entire life. He and his wife Kathy have two grown children, Mark and Noah. He worked at NSP/XCel Energy for 29 years and was an

active member of the

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Bruce has been an active outdoorsman and steward of the land for decades. His favorite activity is deer hunting on his land in west-central Wisconsin. He dabbles in farming—he plants various crops for the deer to enjoy and in 2002 planted acreage as a tree farm. He also

enjoys fishing and has never met a bird he could not identify.

Bruce needs a new liver because he contracted Hepatitis C as a young man while serving in the United States Military. It was not until years later, after briefly losing consciousness at a union event, he found out he had Hepatitis C. There is currently an epidemic of former Vietnam-era servicemen suffering from Hepatitis C. Many servicemen contracted the disease in hospitals from the tainted blood supply, or, as we think in Bruce's case, on military bases while being vaccinated with a high-pressure air injector that was not properly sterilized between uses.

After exhausting other options, his wife Kathy, his sons, his mom, and his brother and sisters have decided to make our appeal for a living partial liver donor public.

Perhaps you can share this link with those you know and that you may be able to help Bruce out.