Political Quotes

“``Sonny'' Calcagno, age 85; John Ciarolla, age 83; Clark Compston, age 74; John McChesney, age 63; William Nicklas, age 87; and ``Mitch'' Wanstreet, age 65 are the victims of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the Pittsburgh VA health care system in 2011 and 2012. We can never really heal the emotional scars that these families have suffered and the 21 additional families who had a family member with a case of Legionnaires', but we can work to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. Today's legislation fixes one of the flaws uncovered during this investigation; and under this bill, VA hospitals will soon follow the same reporting requirements for infectious diseases as other medical facilities. This way, public health authorities will know when a disease outbreak occurs and can take immediate action. Thanks to the dogged determination and diligence of Chairman Miller, Congressman Coffman, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the ranking member, and my colleagues, Messrs. Doyle, Rothfus, and Kelly, we now know the Legionnaires' outbreak was entirely preventable except for the gross mismanagement and negligence of a few key officials at the Pittsburgh VA. The inspector general's report revealed some troubling findings. The VA lacked proper documentation and maintenance of the water system, and was lax in properly informing and testing patients. Further, the VA did not communicate properly with the hospital system in the detection of Legionella.…”