Around New England

Bedford VA Turned Away Suicidal Vet

January 1, 2018

A Veterans Administration press spokesman disputes the claim that the Bedford hospital turned away 44-year-old Byron Wade Earles on November 7, 2016, saying he walked out on a staff psychiatrist after the psychiatrist suggested he try a homeless shelter. Earles almost immediately tried to kill himself wth a knife, he succeeded about two months later, January 6, 2017, after a counseling session at the hospital; the hospital has declined to provide The Lowell Sun complete medical records (despite a waiver signed by Earles’s father) and an interview with hospital administrators and the director of the hospital’s mental health program.