VA Pays $200 Million For Nearly 1,000 Veterans’ Wrongful Deaths

Since 9/11 almost 1,000 veterans have died due to negligence in the veterans health-care system. After lengthy legal battles the VA is finally making payments to their families.

An Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and a history of drug dependency is found dead on the floor of his room at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Los Angeles after doctors give him a 30-day supply of the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam and a 15-day supply of methadone.

In Shreveport, La., a veteran overdoses on morphine while housed in a locked VA psychiatric unit. In a Minnesota VA psych ward, a veteran shoots himself in the head.  In Portland, Ore., a delusional veteran jumps off the roof of the VA hospital.

These are some of the deaths that resulted in more than $200 million in wrongful death payments by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the decade after 9/11, according to VA data obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting...