As sentencing draws closer for the woman accused of killing multiple patients at a veterans nursing home, two more families have settled civil suits over the deaths of the veterans they loved.
The families of veterans Charles Dean and John Hallman settled lawsuits with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, attorney Tony O’Dell said today on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Reta Mays, a former aide at the Clarksburg VA Medical Center, has pleaded guilty in the deaths of multiple veterans, unnecessarily injecting them with insulin so that their blood sugar crashed.
Dean and Hallman were not among the veterans represented by the federal charges against Mays, but their families put together enough evidence to successfully settle with the federal government over their deaths.
Dean was suffering from dehydration and chronic kidney disease when he checked in to the Clarksburg VA Medical Center. He died on April 26, 2017, of hypoglycemia.
Hallman was a Korean War veteran who served in the Navy. He was admitted June 12, 2018, to the VA hospital with a suspected small bowel obstruction. He was placed on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medication and fluids and admitted to the hospital’s 3A unit. An initial test of his blood sugar was normal.
Overnight, periodic checks showed his blood sugar was crashing. By late morning, he was unresponsive and died.
The claim on behalf of Hallman’s family contends the hospital did not take the appropriate steps to examine his symptoms or to warn the family of unusual events at the hospital.
Ten or more deaths are believed to have occurred under similar circumstances in 2017 and 2018 at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg.
Mays, 46, of Harrison County, entered a guilty plea last July 14 to seven counts of murder and another count of assault with attempt to murder. Prosecutors said the last charge was because the victim lived for a period of time and Mays’ actions could not be determined to be the exact cause when the veteran died weeks later.
She faces consecutive life terms for seven murder counts and another 20 years for a count of assault with attempt to murder. For now, she has been taken to West Virginia’s Northern Regional Jail.
She admitted to killing veterans Robert Edge Sr., Robert Kozul, Archie Edgell, George Shaw, a patient identified only as W.A.H., Felix McDermott and Raymond Golden. She is also accused of administering insulin to “R.R.P.,” another patient who was not diabetic, with intent to kill him.
Sentencing for Mays is set for this coming Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.
“They very much want her to get the max. They want her to be in jail the rest of her life,” O’Dell said of the families he represents.
Tony O’Dell, Attorney for many of the families whose loved ones died at the VA Hospital in Clarksburg, talks with @HoppyKercheval about the Reta Mays Sentencing and family settlements. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/VBBwCq58IX
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) May 5, 2021