Richard Stecher died, VA hospital "short on personnel"

[DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD Times]
Mary Nicholl, 63, holds pictures memorializing Richard Stecher, 64, in their back yard in Tarpon Springs, which she said was his favorite spot for relaxing. Stecher died in VA care June 30, and Nicholl blames Haley VA Medical Center for his death.

Apology not enough after a death at VA
Records show multiple lapses in care, and a companion is angry.

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer


TAMPA — The chief of staff at the nation's busiest veterans' hospital met last month with a woman whose longtime companion died at the facility. Then Dr. Edward Cutolo did something she found extraordinary.

He apologized.

Richard Stecher, 64, of Tarpon Springs died June 30 at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center after several "missed opportunities" to treat him, Haley documents show.

Stecher, a Coast Guard veteran, died primarily from complications caused by a perforated bowel obstruction. Minutes after emergency surgery, he suffered a heart attack and never regained consciousness.

But to Mary Nicholl, Stecher's live-in companion of 19 years, the care Haley provided before surgery amounted to gross inattention by a hospital where, she said, care was often chaotic and substandard.

"No veteran," Nicholl said, "should endure what Richie endured."

On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to discuss the case or its medical files on Stecher, given to Nicholl by Haley at her request.

"I am not going to rebut anything she says," Cutolo said Thursday.

A surgeon, a primary care physician and a gastroenterologist failed to adequately treat Stecher over two months, according to VA minutes of Cutolo's meeting with Nicholl.

VA records say Stecher should have been admitted after an April CAT scan but was not admitted until June 27, when the emergency surgery was performed.

Cutolo told Nicholl in a July 23 meeting that doctors were "misled" by his atypical symptoms, records show.

Short on personnel, the VA sent Stecher to a private company in April for a CAT scan. The results were viewed by a non-VA radiologist without access to previous VA scans for comparison, according to a VA document.

That communication gap, Nicholl said, may have led to the failure of Haley to recognize how seriously ill Stecher was. His primary care physician at the VA, located at a VA clinic in Pasco County, strongly suspected an obstruction, records show.
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