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PARKERSBURG -- Additional families have contacted lawyers over suspicious deaths at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, an attorney representing an Ellenboro woman who filed a wrongful death claim against the Department of Veterans Affairs said on Wednesday.
"I'm definitely aware of four others," Tony O'Dell, an attorney representing Melanie Proctor, said. Co-counsel in the Proctor case is Parkersburg attorney Harry Deitzler of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee and Deitzler.
Proctor filed a notice of claim over the death of Proctor's father, Felix K. McDermott, who died in April 2018 while in the care of the medical center. The claim disclosed investigators told the family there was a person of interest and nine or 10 other deaths have occurred under similar suspicious circumstances.
According to an autopsy conducted in October, McDermott, who was not diabetic, died of extremely low blood sugar caused by an injection of insulin that was neither needed nor prescribed. The medical examiner at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware ruled the death a homicide.
VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal Tuesday issued a statement that said his office is investigating allegations of "potential wrongdoing" at the medical center.
The statement was the first public acknowledgment of the investigation into suspicious deaths at the medical center, O'Dell said.
"I'm glad to see the OIG has acknowledged the incident investigation," O'Dell said. "The (Office of the Inspector General) has been the only organization that has provided information to the family."
No one else with the Veterans Administration has spoken to McDermott's family, according to O'Dell.
"The VA has remained unbelievably silent and still hasn't contacted the family," he said. "It has not since he died."
Also on Wednesday, Katey McDonough, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the senator was aware of problems at the medical center since the summer 2018, but didn't know they involved homicide.
Manchin has met with the director of the medical center and the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and was assured the person of interest is no longer in contact with patients there, according to a statement the senator issued on Monday. Manchin is a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Investigators assigned to the case "have done a very good job;" however, the probe must be expanded, Deitzler said.
"The government needs to get the offender's history of employment and do a complete investigation," he said. "There could be other incidents at other facilities."
Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.