Two staff members were fired for their role in leaving a veteran’s body unattended more than nine hours in a shower room at the hospice unit of the Bay Pines VA Health Care System.
The Tampa Bay Times reports Bay Pines released details of the firing and the incident on Tuesday.
An internal investigation found some staff violated hospital and VA rules by failing to properly care for the remains of the veteran and took steps to cover up their actions.
The body was left unattended because hospice staff members didn’t make a request through proper channels to have the body removed.
At first, the body was moved to a hallway, then to a shower room, where it stayed for more than nine hours.
According to the Tampa Bay Times:
Once the veteran died, hospice staff members made direct verbal requests to an individual described as the transporter for the body to be moved to the morgue. The transporter told them to follow proper procedures instead by contacting dispatchers. That request was never made, so those responsible for taking away the body never showed up.
At first, the body was moved to a hallway in the hospice, then to a shower room, where it stayed, unattended, for more than nine hours
Epoch Times contributed to this report.
