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PARKERSBURG -- An 89-year-old man is the seventh apparent victim at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center where veterans have died under suspicious circumstances, according to an attorney representing several families of deceased patients.
The unidentified veteran died in January 2018 under basically identical circumstances as the six other veterans who have been identified, Attorney Tony O'Dell of Tiano O'Dell in Charleston said. The family of the seventh victim doesn't want the identity released at this time.
"I have had this family for a long time, but we just recently got the autopsy results," O'Dell said.
The seven men, who were patients on the same floor and unit, died from an extreme drop in blood sugar, hypoglycemia, after being injected with insulin that was not prescribed.
A person of interest, a nursing assistant, is no longer employed at the medical center. The former employee has not been charged.
The deaths are under investigation by federal authorities including the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia and the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A notice of claim from the family of the seventh victim was filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs in November, O'Dell said. A lawsuit can be filed in May, according to the time period under the Federal Tort Claim Act, he said.
The first public acknowledgment about the suspicious deaths was in a notice of claim filed in August by O'Dell for the estate of Felix McDermott, 82, Ellenboro, a retired U.S. Army sergeant. The claim said investigators told the family the death of nine or 10 veterans at the medical examiner were being investigated.
The other veterans so far publicly identified are:
• Archie Dail Edgell, 84, of Center Point, who died March 26, 2018.
• William "Sport" Holloway, 96, Fairmont, who died April 8, 2018.
• George Nelson Shaw Sr., 81, Wallace, W.Va., who died April 10, 2018.
• John William Hallman, 87, Braxton County, who died June 13, 2018.
• Russell Posey Sr., 92, of Roanoke, W.Va., who died July 13, 2018.
Two of the deaths have been determined to be homicides by the medical examiner, McDermott and Shaw.