"Local Veterans' Home In Question"

WKRN.com (this goes to a page with a video clip)
July 26, 2006

Lawmakers have decided to take a closer look inside the Tennessee State Veterans' Home in Murfreesboro following the release of a 400-page report that challenged the conditions inside the facility.

The report uncovered 21 violations at the Home for Veterans in Murfreesboro, noting nine of those 21 violations were serious enough to put patients' lives in danger. Most of the report focused on the inability of the staff to prevent patients from developing bedsores. Former resident David Lawson was afflicted by bedsores and later died after coming down with pneumonia. The TBI launched an investigation of his death.

On Wednesday, News 2 spoke with Lawson’s daughter Karla Henry at the Legislative Plaza hearing. She was there to give voice to her father who died just a few weeks ago.

Henry said she wanted to make sure state lawmakers heard what had happened to her father. They did, both from her and the Executive Director of the Veterans' Home board. Henry said the fact her father had maggots on his leg on an open wound, pushed her to demand answers.

The state currently oversees two veterans’ homes, the one in Murfreesboro and one in Humboldt in west Tennessee. That facility opened in 1996, and like the Murfreesboro home, has come under fire. The state suspended admissions to the Humboldt home in 2004 for violations included the failure to prevent residents from falling.

Last year, dignitaries broke ground on a third Veterans home in Knox County. The state expects it to open in December.