Monday, August 26, 2019

FBI SINKS A SWAMP RAT

      This Swamp Creature was a really bad one, too. Robert Levy, a pathologist with the Department of Veterans' Affairs was jailed last week on three counts of Manslaughter and 28 various counts of Fraud. The VA has been notable since Trump took office for the sheer number of former federal employees who now become federal prison inmates. 

    Levy was head of the Pathology and Laboratory Medical Services for the VA Hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas for 12 years, and analysed about 34,000 fluid and tissue samples which were intended to provide clinic information upon which to make a diagnosis for treatment. Levy, though, was a chronic alcoholic who frequently was drunk on duty. FBI specialists contend that about 18% were wrongly diagnosed; and one VA official believes that at least 15 veterans died from Levy's malpractice. Federal prosecutors have indicted him for three deaths, so far. His annual salary in that position was $225,000.

   Heavy.com summarized the three cases as follows:

   "One of the patients, a veteran identified as D.R.M. in the document, went in for biopsy in 2009. Levy ruled that the prostate tissue was negative for cancer. Because of that diagnosis, the man did not receive treatment and the disease was able to spread. The man died in 2016 from metastatic prostate cancer. In February of 2014, patient J.R.G. was wrongly diagnosed with “diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A few days later, Levy changed the diagnosis to “adenocarcinoma,” which was also incorrect. Prosecutors said Levy falsified the medical record to make it look as if a second pathologist had agreed with the diagnosis. The patient received the wrong medical treatment and died from small-cell carcinoma on July 26, 2014. The third case prosecutors laid out also began in 2014. Levy was accused again of diagnosing a patient, J.D.Q., with the wrong form of cancer and again lying about a second physician having looked at the results. This patient died on September 13, 2015, after cancer had spread widely through his body."

  As was typical during the Deep-State years, many VA knew of Dr. Levy's condition, but were afraid to rock the boat. In 2015, however, his drunkenness became so apparent that he was finally reported to his superiors. They, however, took his denial at face value and allowed him to continue working. In March, 2016, his impairment was so severe during one lab test, that staffers removed him from the laboratory. He was tested that time, and found to have a Blood/Alcohol Content of 396mg/dl; which, according to specialists, is slightly below the stage of completely passing out. 

  The VA then issued a suspension to Dr. Levy. In July of 2016, he was placed in a 'diversion program' and reinstated in September on the condition of regular monitoring. The Indictment shows that Levy cheated on all of those tests by ingesting a chemical that altered the results to negative. It wasn't until the Trump Administration came into office that Levy was finally fired in 2018; though he largely undid himself after being caught at a DUI checkpoint. 

  Federal prosecutors haven't specified what the maximum penalty could be if Levy is convicted; but personally I hope that they haven't ruled out the death penalty. His case is yet another example of what we, as a country, left after the 2016 elections.   

   
   

1 comment:

  1. What a dreadful case this been - and what a total scumbag that doctor turned out to be!! Unfortunately, he has but one life to give for his country, otherwise he could be shot, hanged and electrocuted as (partial) punishment for his evil deeds!!

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