Paralyzed Marine Injured In Florida VA Hospital
 "VA chief is asked to review hospital. The request comes after a paralyzed Marine is injured at the James Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa."
By Paul De La Garza
St. Petersburg Times, May 13, 2005

TAMPA - A week after a paralyzed Marine was injured at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center, Rep. C.W. Bill Young has asked the head of Veterans Affairs to review the quality of medical care at the hospital.

Young, a member of the Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs, has asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to visit Haley.

Nicholson was receptive to the invitation, Young said, but no date has been set.

This is not the first time the quality of care at Haley has raised questions. Last December, then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi asked the VA inspector general to investigate the mysterious death of a 21-year-old Marine at Haley.

The most recent case involves Cpl. Visnu "Gonzo" Gonzalez, 22, of the Dominican Republic, who must use a wheelchair and is a patient at the hospital's Spinal Cord Injury Center.

He was injured last week after he was left alone to use the bathroom, his mother, Maria Baez, said Thursday. Gonzalez, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was knocked unconscious after he fell to the floor and hit his face, his mother said.

Baez said doctors told her Gonzalez was out for 20 minutes before hospital staff discovered him.

Gonzalez, who was injured by a sniper with a shot to the neck in Iraq, was admitted to the hospital in late March with a bedsore, Baez said.

She said that before the accident, he had been feeling well and had been in good spirits. After the accident, she said he could not talk, did not recognize anybody and could not follow instructions. He was admitted into the intensive care unit.

"I was crying. I was upset. I was shocked," Baez said. "I was scared."

Gonzalez has since regained his faculties, and is back in a private room at the Spinal Cord Injury Center for treatment of the bedsore, his mother said.

The VA issued a statement Thursday that it specifically has tailored for the St. Petersburg Times on any subject that deals with veterans.

"We welcome any opportunity to discuss the quality of care provided by our VA medical centers," said John Pickens, VA regional spokesman. "We will not, however, continue to work with a journalist or news outlet whose agenda precludes fair and balanced reporting."

Baez said that overall the quality of care at Haley has been good, and she praised her son's doctors.

At the same time, she said she fears some hospital staff resent her relationship with Young and his wife, Beverly. The Youngs have gained national prominence as advocates of quality medical care for veterans, especially troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Young has said he requested assignment to the Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee to better monitor the quality of care of veterans.

In an interview earlier in the week, Young said he extended an invitation to Nicholson, the VA secretary, to visit Haley. "I told him to get to Tampa because I told him about the Gonzo situation," he said.

Last December, Principi asked the VA inspector general to investigate the mysterious death of Lance Cpl. Jonathan E. Gadsden, 21.

The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner said the cause of death was bacterial meningitis due to an open-skull fracture. His family said Gadsden had not been diagnosed with meningitis at Haley before his death.