CHICAGO – This week, Tori Richards of the Conservative Review broke a story about veterans being served cockroaches at Hines VA Hospital:
“It’s been like this for years, ever since anyone can remember,” one whistleblower said in Richards' story.
Dietetic technician Kelvin Gilkey has been a VA employee for 33 years. He recounted how PTSD-traumatized veterans in the mental health unit were served cockroaches on food trays on three different occasions last year. One veteran, in his 20s, became enraged and started swearing in disbelief, demanding to be discharged. But he would languish there another 28 days, sickened every time he had to eat a meal.
“I apologized and said I would provide him with a special tray but he refused to eat,” Gilkey said. “He went hungry for a couple of days until I convinced him to eat. He even refused to come out of his room and socialize with anyone. I told him I would take care of him.”
A second veteran didn’t eat for a few days either, but was lucky enough to be discharged within a week. The third man just accepted his fate that cockroaches were in his food, Gilkey said.
Kitchen employees have reportedly refused to come to work, afraid that they would inadvertently bring bugs home. The staff is already down 25 positions – food service funding was diverted toward overtime in the medical ward to fix a secret medical wait list scandal two years ago, said Gilkey, the SEIU union steward for the food service employees.
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk is outraged by the report. Thursday he released a statement after sending a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to demand answers about allegations that food service operations at the Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital in Illinois are plagued by cockroaches and other unsanitary conditions.
“A veteran should NEVER be served food with a roach on their tray," Kirk said. "It's not only deplorable to find out that a roach infestation in the veteran’s kitchen has been allowed to knowingly exist for years without remedy, but once again we learn that the merry-go-round of bullied silence and coverup continues at Hines VA with impunity.”
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