Whistleblower: VA deaths covered up to make statistics look better

It was one of DeWenter’s roles to call veterans when appointments became available to schedule them to get a consultation. Sometimes when she made those calls, she’d find that the veteran had died, so she would enter that on their records.

But at least seven times since last October, records that showed that veterans died while waiting for care — records which DeWenter personally handled and had entered in details of veterans’ deaths — were physically altered, or written over, by someone else, DeWenter said in an exclusive interview with CNN. The changes, or re-writes, listed the veterans as living, not deceased, essentially hiding their deaths.

The alterations had even occurred in recent weeks, she said, in a deliberate attempt to try to hide just how many veterans died while waiting for care, by trying to pretend dead veterans remain alive.

“Because by doing that, that placed (the veterans) back on the wait list,” said DeWenter, explaining she believes that the purpose of “bringing them back to life” in the paperwork and putting the veterans back on the electronic waiting list was to hide the fact that veterans died waiting for care.