The Raw Story GOP Rep. reveals first hand knowledge of Walter Reed conditions, details Army patient's death
GOP Rep. reveals first hand knowledge of Walter Reed conditions, details Army patient's death
Filed by Michael Roston
The top Republican who previously chaired the committee that wrote Defense budget bills admitted yesterday that he was aware of many problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but feared that more aggressive oversight would "give the Army a black eye."
He alleged in a lengthy statement that an Army Staff Sergeant died at Walter Reed Army Medical hospital several days after a respiratory therapist mistakenly conducted a percussive therapy exercise that caused the soldier to bleed heavily.
The explanation appeared to contradict the official cause of death of William T. Latham, pictured at the right, reported by the Pentagon in 2003.
Young's remarks came during the course of a Defense Appropriations hearing on "Walter Reed Infrastructure," before three top Army generals who oversaw the service's medical system.
Preferred 'person to person' oversight
In his introductory remarks remarks, Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young (R-FL), who chaired the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, explained why he had not carried out the kind of oversight that was now occurring on the treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed.
"General Kiley, we did not go public with these concerns because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the army a black eye while fighting a war," he said.
Young also seemed to worry about embarrassing soldiers and their families.
"I would not hold hearings on patients and their problems and violate their privacy," he said.
Young and his wife, Beverly, have done extensive volunteer work at Walter Reed, and he said he used his contacts to make changes in a more 'personal' way.
"We worked person to person, directly with civilian and military leaders to solve the individual problems without casting blame on the many good functions at Walter Reed," he said.
The former chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee also said his committee had carried out regular hearings on the military medical care system and called out the generals testifying before the committee for not bringing the problems now seen at Walter Reed to the fore.
"Knowing there were problems at Walter Reed, why didn't you just level with us? Why didn't you just tell us what the situation really was if you knew, rather than continue to suggest that everything was OK? " he asked. "This committee has been a partner in ensuring all the services have had what they needed, and more, to provide the best in military medicine."
Raises questions about soldier's death
Rep. Young of Florida spoke at length in the hearing and identified three cases of poor treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed which had not been previously publicized.
During his remarks, Young insisted the statements he was making were not based on hearsay, and that he had personal knowledge of the incidents. In the third case he discussed, he revealed actions that might have contributed to the death of Army Staff Sergeant William Latham in 2003.
Latham was 29 when he died on June 18, 2003. He was a native of Kingman, Arizona and a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry based out of Fort Carson, Colorado. The Pentagon,
in an official announcement, said that Latham had been hit by shrapnel in Iraq during a May 19 raid on an arms market, and that "he died of his wounds" a month later. Latham had a wife, Melissa, and three children.
Young and his wife had become close to the family of Staff Sgt. Latham after being asked to intervene in their case. The Youngs had tried to have Latham transferred to the Navy's medical center at Bethesda because facilities at Walter Reed needed to treat Latham had broken down. But the proposal had been vetoed by the Army out of concern that it was not safe to move him.
Latham, Young explained, had a tube inserted in his brain to relieve a leaking aneurysm. Several days before the soldier's death, Young stated that a respiratory therapist entered Latham's room and prepared to conduct "percussions" that had been ordered.
When Latham's wife objected and worried that the therapy would affect Latham's aneurysm, the therapist checked the patient's chart, and claimed to see no indication of an aneurysm on his records.
The therapist began the treatment, at which point, the Florida Congressman said Latham bled profusely from his brain. He died several days later.
The Congressman was careful not to say directly that the respiratory therapist had killed Latham.
"Maybe he would have died anyway, I don't know," he said. "I'm not a medical person."
Still, Young called Latham's death "a tragic experience."
Young, who missed an important vote in Congress in 2003 to attend Latham's funeral,
according to the St. Petersburg Times, explained why he had not spoken up about Latham's death.
I've never wanted to go public with it because I wouldn't without the permission of the parents and the wife," Young said. "And in this case, when they knew they were doing this hearing, they asked me to do that."
A full transcript of Rep. Young's remarks on Staff Sgt. William Latham are presented below.
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The last case, this is one I really don't want to bring up, but the parents of this soldier, and the wife of this soldier asked me to please bring up this case.
We got into this case by the call of a very high ranking army official who knew of Beverly's interest and concern, and of our work with a lot of the wounded kids and their families at Walter Reed and at Bethesda. He said this is a very serious case. The family has serious problems, will you poease go to the hospital, find the family, and do what you can to help. And she said "of course I will." And that's what she did, that's what we did. This was a long drawn out case.
The soldier's name is Staff Sergeant William Latham. Staff Sergeant Latham was injured in Iraq when eh was blowing in a door, the explosion came back into his face and head, and it caused severe damage. He never really regained consciousness until a few weeks later at Walter Reed hospital.
This is a long story, and I'll make it very short.
Staff Sgt. Latham had a bleeding, leaking aneurysm in his brain, and that was pretty obvious, because he had a tube in the side of his head. It was obvious that he had a leaking aneurysm. Sgt. Latham became quite ill, he did show signs of being conscious. He asked his father at one point "What happened Dad?" So we know that he regained consciousness, at least briefly.
Medical Corps at Walter Reed made the decision that Staff Sgt. Latham needed some emergency surgery to fix the aneurysm in his brain before it killed him. The Cath Lab that I talked about in my opening statement was malfunctioning. It wasn't running, it wasn't working. i couldn't hardly believe that, so I asked my staff assistant who was also an attorney, I said "go down to the cath lab and find out what's going on" and he did. And he went down with the hospital commander and came back and said "It's broken, it doesn't work." Beverly drove to Bethesda and called Don Arthur and said to Admiral Arthur, "Here's the situation, can you help?" He said "I think so, let me see what's going on." She got in the car, and drove over to Bethesda, she went to Don Arthur, met him in his office, explained the case as to what was happening with Staff Sgt. Will Latham.
He talked to General Kiley, he said "We can fix this, we have the equipment, it's up and running, we'll send an ambulance and bring him over." Now Admiral Arthur says that he was told no, we're not going to do that, we can take care of our own, and we think it's too dangerous to move in.
Maybe it was too dangerous.
But the next morning, a respiratory therapist came to the room of Staff Sgt. Latham who has a tube coming out of his head because he has a leaking aneurysm. The respiratory therapist goes into the room and is about to begin the percussions that he said were needed and were ordered.
Staff Sgt. Latham's wife, who is now his widow said "I don't know that you should do that. He has this leaking aneurysm."
The respiratory therapist went out to the hall, checked the chart, came back and said "There's no mention on the chart of the aneurysm, and the directions are to do physical therapy," or respiratory therapy.
Mrs. Latham said "Will that hurt him?
The therapist said no, started to pound on his back, and it was at that point, huge amounts of blood came shooting out of that tube, out of his brain. The family saw what was happening. The Lathams had three kids back at home. Melissa knew that it was all over at that point. She asked Beverly if she would stay with Will until he died, and she did. And he died a few days later.
Maybe he would have died anyway, I don't know. Maybe if we would have taken him to Bethesda, maybe he wouldn't have survived, I don't know that either, I'm not a medical person. My wife has great training as a medic, she was a medic, and she got her training at an Army hospital, by the way, so she knows a little bit about Army procedures and Army medicine.
These things should not happen in a first-class hospital with first-class people who are doctors and nurses and it's just something that, this has been on my mind for a long time. And I've never wanted to public with it because I wouldn't without the permission of the parents and the wife. And in this case, when they knew they were doing this hearing, they asked me to do that.
So I don't know if you want to comment on that or not. But I think that is a tragic experience for everyone involved. So our role here, my role as a member of this Congress and this committee, our role is to fix what needs to be fixed, to guarantee that our soldiers, our heroes, our people who are doing what they've been sent to do on the battlefield, that they are getting the type of care that they deserve, and they deserve the best medical care that we have available.
And as I've said, if we don't identify the problem we don't fix it. I've just identified three problems where the parents asked me to do so.
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