Bond seeks to add Columbia VA hospital to federal inquiry

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Sen. Kit Bond wants the Department of Veteran's Affairs to investigate how maggots ended up in the foot of a patient at the VA hospital in Columbia.

The department is already investigating cleanliness issues at its Kansas City hospital, following a report in March that maggots infested the noses of two comatose patients during a mouse and fly infestation in 1998. Bond said he wants the veteran's department Inspector General to add the Columbia hospital to the inquiry.

"While I understand that the Harry S. Truman's Memorial Veterans' hospital does not have the same history of rodent and fly infestation found at the Kansas City Veterans Hospital, I request the Veterans' Administration review this incident," Bond, R-Mo., wrote in his letter to Veteran's Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi last week.

Republican Rep. Kenny Hulshof sent a similar letter.

A diabetes patient in the extended-care unit at Truman Memorial Veteran's Hospital was receiving a dressing change when a nurse noticed contamination that was later identified as maggots, hospital spokesman Stephen Gaither said. The wound may have been contaminated with maggots while the patient was on an outdoor patio, Gaither said.

"All the literature supports that this can happen quickly," Gaither said. "At this point, the patient was getting routine dressing changes."

The patient and his family have been notified, and the patient has decided to remain at the hospital. The other patients in the unit were examined after the May 15 discovery, and no additional maggots were found.