Advocate: Investigate deaths of 2 veterans from staph infections

One patient's widow says the VA hospital is to blame.
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) -- A veterans advocate wants the federal government to investigate the deaths of two patients who had a stubborn staph infection at the Veterans Affairs Department Medical Center in Butler Township.
John Cyprian, Butler County's director of veterans services, wants the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to review the cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Saturday.
MRSA is an infection that is most commonly found in hospitals and other health-care settings. It often causes minor skin infections, but some infections can become life-threatening -- particularly in elderly and frail patients -- because it resists antibiotic treatments.
Albert Richard McKnight, 76, of Forward, died Thursday at the hospital because of complications from the infection. John Stevenson, 63, of Butler, died May 4, two months after contracting the infection and other illnesses.
"I blame the VA hospital for all of this," said Stevenson's widow, Gertrude, 62, who has filed a complaint with the hospital's patient advocate.
Concerned by claims
But Cyprian said he's particularly concerned by Gertrude Stevenson's claims that four other men on her husband's floor died shortly before he did.
John Stevenson was on the hospital's fourth floor when he contracted the infection, his widow believes, although he later died in Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, where he had been transferred for long-term care after developing the infection, another bacterial infection, respiratory distress and renal failure. Stevenson's official cause of death was renal failure.
McKnight was also a patient on the hospital's fourth floor before he died, Cyprian said.
McKnight went to the hospital in February for rehabilitation after a stroke he suffered last year. His family objected when he was assigned to a room with another patient who had MRSA, but were told by nurses that moving McKnight wasn't necessary.
Cyprian said that hospital officials confirmed that McKnight's family complained and that the hospital will take full responsibility.
"We'll take this complaint seriously," said David Virag, public affairs officer for the VA hospital. "We'll review this closely and we'll take proper action."
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