President Donald Trump signed an executive order back in March intended to help prevent veteran suicides, but this past weekend, two Georgia veterans committed suicide at two separate VA Medical centers.
The veteran’s hospitals where the suicides occurred were the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center and the Atlanta VA Medical Center.
The first death happened Friday in a parking garage at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, according to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office. The second occurred Saturday outside the main entrance to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur on Clairmont Road. The VA declined to identify the victims or describe the circumstances of their deaths, citing privacy concerns.
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An email the VA sent the Georgia Department of Veterans Service Monday about the Atlanta incident said VA clinical staff provided immediate aid to the male victim and called 911. The veteran was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“This incident remains under investigation and we are working with the local investigating authorities,” the email continued. “The family has been contacted and offered support.”
The victim in Atlanta was 68 years old and shot himself, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
More than 6,000 veterans killed themselves each year between 2008 and 2016. In 2016, 202 people died by suicide in Georgia. And between 2015 and 2016, the suicide rate per 100,000 people for veterans ages 18 to 34 increased from 40.4 to 45 nationwide, despite the VA’s efforts to tackle the problem.
In 2013, the VA disclosed that two of its officials had retired, three had been reprimanded and others were facing unspecified “actions” after reports of rampant mismanagement and patient deaths at the VA hospital in Decatur. Federal inspectors issued scathing audits that linked mismanagement to the deaths of three veterans there.
In one case, a man who was trying to see a VA psychiatrist who was unavailable was told by hospital workers to take public transportation to an emergency room. He never did and died by suicide the next day. Another man died of an apparent drug overdose after providers failed to connect him with a psychiatrist. And a third patient died of an overdose of drugs given to him by another patient. The death of a fourth veteran, who killed himself in a hospital bathroom, later came to light.
Veterans are 1.5 times more likely than non-veterans to take their lives, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 20 die by suicide on average each day.
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