The family of Vance Perry, an Army veteran who froze to death after being released from a VA hospital, is saying that it was negligence that led to his death.
He was found dead on New Year’s Eve in a parking garage in Madison, Wis. — his daughter, Erika, hasn’t seen her father in nearly five years and now she and her siblings are trying to figure out how they can see him one last time.
Just last month he moved from Atlanta to Wisconson where he met his untimely end.
“He was the most giving person that I ever met,” Erika Perry said. “It’s just sad he died a lonely death.”
She further stated that he was picked up by a Veteran Affairs van for a routine appointment for his paranoid schizophrenia. He was then admitted for mental instability.
“Friday morning, they released him. They didn’t make sure that he got in a car,” she said, “He walked away.”
A spokesperson for the Madison Veterans hospital confirmed that Mr. Perry did, indeed, arrive “through the Disabled American Veterans van program,” further saying that once he was released that they arranged for a taxi to take him home.
“It is unclear why the veteran did not utilize that transportation and return home per the discharge plan,” said Paul Rickert of Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital.
“But there is video footage showing my dad wandering off with no escort,” Erika Perry said.”It’s negligence.”
Paul Rickert of Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital released this statement: “We are terribly saddened to learn of the loss of this veteran. Prior to his death, he voluntarily checked out of our facility, which had no grounds to prevent him forcibly from doing so.”
“Regardless of his mental illness — and especially because of his mental illness — he should have been taken better care of,” Erika said.
(H/T 11Alive)
