A woman died in a hot car after being turned away from a Nevada VA hospital during the pandemic because of Covid rules as her husband received treatment.
Lear Litt, 75, was denied entry as a visitor to the North Las Vegas VA Hospital and was later found unconscious outside in her car in 110 degree heat.
Her husband David, a military veteran, was receiving a transfusion in August 2020, when visitors were not permitted inside the hospital because of strict restrictions.
Clark County Coroner’s office records state that a doctor saw Ms Litt inside the car, which had its windows down but no AC running, at around 12pm, according to KLAS.
She told the doctor that she did not have enough gas in the vehicle to let it run as she waited for her husband.
Mr Litt says at around 2.30pm he asked hospital staff to check on his wife, who he could not reach on the phone, and shortly after heard an announcement for “Rapid response in the parking lot.”
His wife was found unresponsive with a body temperature of 109 degrees, reported the news station.
“Someone’s doing compressions and I’m across the hall from where this is taking place, but I knew it was her,” Mr Litt told the news network.
“Without even seeing it, I knew it was her.”
Despite efforts to revive her, Ms Litt was pronounced dead inside the hospital.
“The unfortunate reality was we spent so much time on risk assessing, protect veterans, protect staff and after that incident occurred, we had to take a step back and say, well, there is a secondary risk too because of the weather out here,” said William Caron, the head of VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System.
Multiple departments at the VA hospital have investigated the incident, but KLAS says that they were denied the results.
