I wish I was discussing ancient history due to the long history this nation has in abusing soldiers and veterans in human experimentation since WW2, the chemical weapons experiments in WW2 at Edgewood Arsenal, the Cold War human experiments at Fort Detrick (Operation White Coat) many projects at Edgewood Arsenal from 1955 thru 1975, Operation SHAD in the 1960's.
This week the VA Inspector General has released a report on the failures of VA doctors and researchers to properly document consent forms, and the deaths of patients involved in the research projects. Enough is enough when is accountability going to be demanded and veterans protected by the Veterans Administration rather than keep using and abusing them for medical research?
Here is the article fromVA releases report critical of Ark. hospitals
LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A federal report has found researchers working at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System failed to follow rules governing human experimentation, including not telling those in a surgery trial about another participant's medical emergency following the procedure.
A report by the inspector general's office of the Veterans Affairs Administration found researchers also conducted several HIV tests without patients' permission, filmed dementia patients without consent and destroyed records just before a federal audit. The report says the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' internal review board, which oversaw the researchers, also failed to follow up to make sure researchers corrected the problems in several cases.
Though both UAMS and the veterans hospitals have made changes in the time since, investigators said further review is necessary.
Then there is this original report from The Washington Times
The investigation, which began last August, reviewed more than a half-dozen human experiments - including studies of colon, breast and prostate cancer - that had been conducted since 2006.
It found that entire consent forms were missing, signatures were missing from consent forms, HIV testing was conducted without documented consent, and research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in a study involving patients with dementia.
Additionally, the investigation found that researchers had failed to report "serious adverse events" during the experiments, including the deaths of 105 veterans. The researchers were required to report such events, regardless of whether they were accidental or linked to the experiments, to the Internal Review Board.
Violations rife in hospital's studies on veterans
Inspector general finds consent forms, death reports missing
I realize I am critical of human experiments, given the fact that I was used in the Cold War program at Edgewood Arsenal in 1974, and the VA refuses to address the medical problems related to the exposures there or the environmental exposures thru the water wells and soil of the training areas at Edgewood, it leaves me cynical about all government human experimentation, they do not put the health of the patients first, the mission comes first and if the subjects survive unharmed, then thats just pure luck.
Who can forget the recent chantix and veterans
story on problems with that drug
from July 8, 2008
The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs will appear before Congress tomorrow to answer questions about why his administration continued to recruit veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan for studies of pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side-effects. The controversial tests were the subject of an ABC News/ Washington Times investigation last month.
Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, including former US Army sniper James Elliott, were recruited for government tests on the anti-smoking drug Chantix, which has been linked to suicide.In one of the human experiments involving the anti-smoking drug Chantix, VA doctors waited more than three months after a statement was issued by the Food and Drug Administration before warning veterans about the possible serious side-effects, including suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior.
In the meantime, a new report out in today's Washington Times says that doctors at the VA began raising red flags as early as last year about Chantix, prompting a quiet investigation last fall.
There should be accountability, where is the outrage from the Presidential contenders, they want to become Commander in Chief, is this what they are going to allow when they are President, or will John McCain get his way and shut down the VA hospital system to enable privatized medical clinics to suck up the Veterans medical dollars?