[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12956-12957]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          THE MIAMI VA'S CONTINUED PROBLEMS WITH COLONOSCOPIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, over a year ago, more than 3,000 
veterans in the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center were notified 
that they could have been exposed to life-threatening diseases like HIV 
and hepatitis because the Miami VA was not properly sterilizing its 
equipment for

[[Page 12957]]

colonoscopies. These are veterans who went in for routine screenings, 
who put their trust in the medical professionals at the VA, and could 
have been possibly infected with any number of viruses. Our veterans 
who sacrificed so much for our country deserve better than this.
  When this matter first came to light last year, immediate hearings 
into the matter were called. My colleagues and I were told multiple 
times that every veteran who underwent a colonoscopy during the risk 
period would be contacted and would be tested. During followup site 
visits at the Miami VA, I was again personally assured that the VA had 
informed every impacted veteran. Most importantly, both local and 
national VA officials were certain that real positive changes had been 
made to restore accountability and trust. Now, Madam Speaker, 1 year 
later, we find out that an additional 79 veterans might have been 
exposed to these life-threatening viruses but were, in fact, never 
notified of their risk.
  Now, we are blessed to have excellent doctors, excellent nurses, 
excellent health care professionals working at the Miami VA, and I'm 
sure that they are saddened by this repeated problem. I thank this 
dedicated group of health care professionals for caring so deeply about 
our veterans. They should not be faulted for the problems of a few.
  This most recent mistake was only discovered by the Miami VA when one 
of the veterans, himself, came forward. He wondered why the hospital 
had not contacted him about his colonoscopy which was performed during 
the risk period. Without his coming forward, these 79 potentially 
impacted patients could have easily gone completely unnoticed.
  HIV and hepatitis are much more easily treated, and survivability is 
greatly enhanced, obviously, if the diseases are caught early. The 
failure of some in the Miami VA to identify those veterans is near 
unfathomable when considering the supposed microscope that the VA had 
promised they would be held under.

                              {time}  1630

  Yet 79 of the veterans still fell through the cracks. Nationally, the 
VA has promised to deliver on its pledge of greater management 
accountability and trust. The VA must follow basic procedures to 
protect its patients and implement a process for examining its faults 
and resolving them.
  The Miami VA is again contacting every single patient who may have 
been exposed so that he can be tested and, if need be, treated. The VA 
must make sure that this tragedy is never repeated and that 
accountability and oversight are restored.
  Our country is deeply indebted to the sacrifices made by our 
courageous men and woman who have served in our Armed Forces. We owe it 
to them to make sure that they are taken care of upon their return 
home.
  This terrible mistake that led our veterans to being potentially 
impacted with life-threatening diseases cannot be repeated. To restore 
that lost credibility, the VA must enact new procedures to ensure that 
similar problems never occur in the future and make sure that there are 
proper mechanisms in place to resolve any issues that do arise.
  I know that the Miami VA health care professionals have a lot of work 
ahead of them to rebuild the trust, and they will do so. They will re-
establish that bond between each veteran and the most excellent Miami 
VA center.
  Our veterans know that they deserve to know what went wrong and, more 
importantly, that it will never happen to a fellow veteran from here on 
out.

                          ____________________