VA inspector general to come to Iowa City

Wednesday was Kristine Nichols and Brandon Ketchum's three-year anniversary of being together. But instead of celebrating with her boyfriend, Nichols will be meeting with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General on Friday to discuss Ketchum's death.

The Iowa veteran committed suicide on July 8, after he reportedly was denied admittance to the Iowa City Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital hours earlier.

In the weeks since his death, Nichols said she still is left with more questions than answers. U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa City, and Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both Republicans, have written VA officials demanding answers to what Ernst has called the hospital's 'apparent failure or refusal to properly treat” Ketchum, 33, of Davenport.

Friday's meeting will be to begin gathering facts into what happened, Nichols said.

Jon Pruett, administrative officer to the director for the Iowa City VA Health Care System, said Wednesday the Inspector General's office will be in town this week, but could not comment on specifics of the trip.

'It's not uncommon to visit various facilities,” he said.

According to a post on his Facebook page, Ketchum went to the hospital July 7 seeking help with his post-traumatic stress disorder, only to be told to go home and take his medication.

In that post, Ketchum wrote that he was seeking assistance because he believed he was a threat to his own safety.

Nichols told The Gazette Wednesday that Ketchum also was struggling with substance abuse - he was addicted to painkillers and, later, heroin. He had relapsed about a month before he died, she said, which also is why he was seeking help at the Iowa City VA.

He wanted to be admitted so he could go be put on Suboxone - a medication that can curb opioid cravings and make withdrawal less painful.

'We were going through a rough time with the substance abuse,” Nichols recalled. 'He was struggling with quitting using. But we had plans - we planned on getting married, he filed papers for custody modifications” of his four-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage.

'Two months before he passed away, things were going super well. We had been through this before, him using, getting treatment and staying clean.”

Nichols and Beverly Kittoe, Ketchum's mother, are working to obtain his medical records, she said, adding that she helped his mother fill out the necessary paperwork last week.

Casey Downing, 30, of Marion, served with Ketchum in the Iowa National Guard and was deployed with him in Afghanistan from August 2010 to August 2011. There they performed route-clearing missions on which they looked for roadside bombs and disposed of them. Downing said Ketchum had done two similar tours in Iraq with the Marines before joining the Guard.

'He got out of the Marines but missed the lifestyle,” Downing said.

Most missions were routine, Downing explained.

'We would work alongside the roads and look for wires and look for people with triggers,” he said. 'We did not experience any bad hits like he did (in Marines).”

But Downing remembers one day when another unit came upon an improvised explosive device - an IED - that blasted a vehicle and killed a soldier.

'We were the first responders, and when we removed the wrecked vehicle, we saw the soldier's body. Just seeing that affected me pretty bad with my PTSD,” Downing said.

When Downing learned Ketchum had taken his own life, he ached for his friend and for Ketchum's family, including Ketchum's daughter.

'Once I found out he was turned away (from the VA), that sadness and shock turned into anger,” Downing said.

Downing has received medical treatment from the Iowa VA and hasn't had any issues with the system. But he's upset the hospital won't release information to Ketchum's family.

The VA has said it cannot release specific information due to privacy rights under HIPAA. But in a statement, the department said 'it was saddened to learn that a veteran who was receiving care from us has died by suicide. This is a tragedy for everyone involved because even one veteran suicide is one too many.”

Loebsack's office on Wednesday announced he is drafting legislation to 'ensure all veterans who seek treatment receive the care they need and deserve.”

'The VA's response to my questions (so far) is lacking, to say the least,” he said in a statement. 'I understand and respect the need for privacy and a full and thorough investigation of the events leading up to Sgt. Ketchum taking his own life, but this response fails to address the greater issue of what needs to be done to ensure this never happens again.”

Nichols said she hopes this situation leads the VA to allow veterans to participate more actively in their care.

'If a veteran feels they need inpatient treatment, there is no reason to deny inpatient treatment,” she said. 'They denied inpatient that day and it cost Brandon his life. No reason that doctor had is worth Brandon's life.

'Doctors aren't listening to patients.”

Gazette reporter Erin Jordan contributed to this story.