Understaffing, poor records management and the constant shuffling of personnel in military hospitals and clinics undermines continuity of care

Kayla Reardon does schoolwork on the living room floor. Kayla has cerebral palsy, which her parents say results from a failure by Wright-Patterson Medical Center doctors to properly treat her mother Kimberly (rear) for asthma during pregnancy. (Skip Peterson/Dayton Daily News)

EL PASO, Texas - Until the morning Donald McKinley's wife found him face-down in their back yard, he might have been treated for the clogged arteries that finally failed him.

But his doctor never noticed the warning signs.

McKinley, a retired Army sergeant, had diabetes, high blood pressure, angina and a history of high cholesterol. An electrocardiogram showed an abnormal heartbeat. A chest X-ray revealed a buildup of calcium in his aorta, the body's main artery.

McKinley, 67, saw Dr. Andrew Curtis Faire at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center here seven times in the months before he died. Dr. Faire, suspecting sore muscles were causing the abrupt pains in McKinley's arms and shoulders, prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug.

Three weeks after the last visit, McKinley was dead. An autopsy would later show his arteries were 95 percent clogged in places.

Had the coronary artery disease been diagnosed, a Houston cardiologist told government lawyers, McKinley "probably would have had a bypass and . . . probably would still be alive today."

To settle a medical malpractice claim, the government agreed a few months ago to pay Pauline McKinley approximately $300,000. Her claim represents one of 402 cases of alleged medical malpractice at Beaumont from 1986 to 1996.

Those cases push Beaumont to a grim distinction: the hospital with more malpractice claims than any other military health facility in America.

next: Alleged Incidents of Medical Malpractice

day 3 index:
part 1: Too Many Patients, Too Little Time
part 2: Alleged Incidents of Medical Malpractice
part 3: Two kinds of doctors in the military
part 4: Doctors change, records go astray