A whistleblower has accused the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Illinois of leaving veterans' bodies "to decompose in the morgue for months on end," Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) told Fox News this week. "Some veterans' remains have been left in our hospital morgue for 45 days or more until they are stacked to capacity at times," the whistleblower claimed, and Kirk's office reports that on at least one occasion "a body had liquefied and the bag burst when staff had attempted to move it." Internal VA emails show a frustrated hospital employee threatening to file a police report if delayed approval for a burial is not promptly received.
The Hines hospital is no stranger to allegations of mismanagement, much like the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs more generally. In May, Kirk introduced legislation requiring VA hospitals to undergo regular kitchen inspections after the Hines facility was found to be infested with cockroaches. The roaches "routinely crawl across kitchen countertops and have ended up in veterans' food," a whistleblower said, adding that VA exterminators announced the hospital should continue as-is because the infestation was "not very severe."
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The Hines hospital administration denied all accusations of keeping veterans' bodies in the morgue too long.
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