Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992 TAG: 9203280256
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The discovery of the bodies of Carl Otis McKenzie, 64, and Leonard A. Cunningham, 44, contributed to Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward Derwinski's decision Thursday to postpone the dedication ceremony of a $55 million clinical addition at the center. The ceremony had been scheduled for April 3.
Both men were inpatients in two of the center's psychiatric care wards, Pat Clark, public information officer said. Both were being treated for emotional problems, she said.
"Management, as well as all the hospital staff, have been grieving about the issue after the discovery," Clark said. "We knew that still there were two lives that were unidentified that were someone's loved ones."
Missing-patient reports on McKenzie and Cunningham had been on file at the Salem center.
Publicly, VA officials on Wednesday and Thursday refused to acknowledge any link between the missing patients and the bodies until autopsies could be performed.
Meanwhile, in Washington on Thursday, the VA's deputy public affairs director had confirmed that the discovery of the bodies led in part to Derwinski's decision to delay the dedication.
That was contradicted Friday by Salem VA spokesman Frank Miles, a department head who heads the committee planning the dedication.
"I know as of yesterday [Thursday] that nothing had been communicated to Washington," Miles said. "Nothing was said to Washington that the body appeared to be that of a missing patient. To do that would have been pure speculation."
Autopsies on both men were completed Friday afternoon.
McKenzie's badly decomposed body was found shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday by a patient.
About 4:30 p.m., a groundskeeper spotted Cunningham's body hanging from a tree with a rope around its neck.
Concern that the heavy thicket of pine trees where the bodies were found had posed a hazard for wandering patients has been "ongoing" for years, a VA employee said Friday. The employee requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
A memorandum issued Friday by a nursing supervisor directed employees not to release any information concerning patients to reporters without first contacting the center's public information officer.
The employee said when someone proposed that the thicket be cleared, employees were told that federal policy prohibited destroying healthy trees.
Salem VA Director Clark Graninger could not specifically address questions Friday about VA policy on action to be taken when a patient is reported missing, or about how often patients wander off.
"We do know that they do it," Graninger said. "We go weeks without any, then we may have two to three in some weeks. We can't keep them locked up here. Anyone can come and leave whenever they want, unless they are committed and here by court order."
The Department of Veterans Affairs handles each missing-patient case differently, said Ozzie Garza, regional director for the department's office of public affairs.
Cunningham had been committed to a psychiatric ward. McKenzie had not been committed, Clark said.
Employees were quick to point to deteriorating patient care - one concern raised by the American Federation of Government Employees local in Salem - as reasons why patients could be declared missing for so long.
"I think part of it goes back to short-staffing," said one employee, who asked not to be named. "How are they able to do a massive search when you don't have the personnel?"
A VA review team from Washington completed its investigation Friday into the federation's charges of low employee morale, stressful working conditions and deteriorating patient care.
VA officials have traced what the union calls a "chaotic" environment to changes related to the opening of a $55 million clinical addition. The union's actions have only detracted from efforts to improve patient care, officials have said.
Alma Lee, president of the local in Salem, asserted at a news conference Friday that the case of the missing patients "does tie in to the fact that patient care is deteriorating."
"What concerns me is that the people never left the [center]," Lee said. Lee expressed her condolences to the families of the two veterans.
Graninger acknowledged that the atmosphere at the Salem center was filled with some degree of "anxiety."
"I would call it speculation," he said. "It would not be unlike something going on in any organization. There's a lot of speculation, I'm sure."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB