VA Deaths Covered Up To Make Stats Look Better

Records were changed to make statistics look better, so that those waiting for care wouldn’t be counted.

“Deceased” notes on files were removed to make statistics look better, so veterans would not be counted as having died while waiting for care, Pauline DeWenter said.

DeWenter should know. DeWenter is the actual scheduling clerk at the Phoenix VA who said for the better part of a year she was ordered by supervisors to manage and handle the so-called “secret waiting list,” where veterans’ names of those seeking medical care were often placed, sometimes left for months with no care at all.

For these reasons, DeWenter is among the most important and central people to the Phoenix VA scandal over a secret wait list, veterans’ wait times and deaths. Despite being in the center of the storm, DeWenter has never spoken publicly about any of it — the secret list, the altering of records, the dozens of veterans she believes have died waiting for care — until now.

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.