Troubling vets center story

Oklahomans should know before long what the Department of Human Services finds about treatment of residents at the Lawton/ Fort Sill Veterans Center. Some with loved ones in the facility expect that the results will not be pleasant.

The Oklahoman's Randy Ellis reported Sunday on family members' complaints of veterans being abused and neglected, with problems growing worse after the site's coronavirus-induced lockdown in March.

One woman said her husband, 83, was hospitalized in late July — his third hospital trip since mid-March — for treatment of blood clots that ran from his feet to near his waist. He had been left in a wheelchair for 36 hours without being put to bed or having his diaper changed, the woman said.

The previous hospital trips followed her husband developing infections after being left in his wheelchair in feces and urine for long periods, she said. “They're treated worse than prisoners. It's awful,” she said.

Ellis spoke with a man whose father, 82, had to be hospitalized for a stroke.

Staff at the veterans' center took more than six hours to call an ambulance after discovering his dad was showing signs of a stroke, he said.

At the hospital, he gave his father a haircut and “what I found on my father's scalp was absolutely atrocious. He had huge, pus-crusted wounds on his scalp. … They took his adult diaper off and it was completely saturated with urine and feces.”

The man has a camera in his father's room; video showed he had not been changed in more than eight hours that morning.

One woman sent The Oklahoman photos showing large open sores on the toes and feet of her father, 85. Another woman said her husband, 83, is in the hospital with a broken hip after what she said was at least his seventh fall at the veterans' center since March 4.

Loved ones say residents who cannot feed themselves are not getting the help they need with family members unable to enter the building. They blame inadequate staffing — one person said the facility was short 30 nurses at one time.

Joel Kintsel, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, says all seven state veterans centers are dealing with staffing issues exacerbated by the pandemic, but that the problem at Lawton/ Fort Sill was not as severe family members suggest.

Kintsel also said some of those who have complained “have a history of doing that.” His office knows of many families who are “very happy” with their loved ones' care, he said.

“If there really is an issue of some kind, we want to identify that and fix it immediately,” Kintsel said, “but we'll see what the investigation turns up.”

The perspectives here could not be more different. The report by the Adult Protective Services Division of DHS will be worth studying, with swift action a must if the families' stories are corroborated.