Thursday, May 03, 2012

ANOTHER NEEDLESS DEATH

A case with similarities to the one which resulted in the death of Sheri Sanji.

Note that the SF VAMC academic partner is UCSF, as described in this paragraph:

"Research is also a key aspect of the VA Medical Service. Facilitated by a VA-based non-profit research organization, SFVAMC-based faculty members are supported by more NIH grants than any other hospital in the VA system and also have access to research funding from the VA and other external sources. VA research ranges from laboratory to clinical and outcomes in focus. The VA is also playing a leading role in the UCSF Clinical and Translational Research Institute, an ambitious NIH effort to stimulate the translation of basic scientific findings to improve individual and population health"

In other words, the VAMC is likely just the landlord for this "VAMC lab."  The lab is likely really run by the University of California.  If so, this death would be the second time in four years that a young healthy lab worker died as a result of conditions in a University of California run  lab.  The lab management is paid to train their workers adequately, and to keep lab conditions safe enough, so that even one death should never happen.  These two deaths are just another example of the pattern of accepting payment (grant monies, which generally include funding for worker training and safety measures) and not actually providing the paid-for service (in these cases, worker training and safety measures adequate to prevent two deaths in ~ 4 years).