Tag: Northport VA

The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold a field hearing at the Northport VA Medical Center next month as part of an ongoing probe into the troubled facility, to include maintenance issues, management concerns, and the closure of five operating rooms due to ventilation issues. The committee hearing will also include a recent suicide of a patient on its grounds.

Peter Kaisen, the 76-year-old veteran whose lifeless body was discovered in the parking lot of Northport VA Hospital on Sunday after a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was a loving grandfather and devoted husband who often sought treatment at the facility, says his longtime friend Tom Farley, 69, of Islip, who shared the snapshots of the beloved grandfather's life included in this story with the Press on behalf of his family in the hopes these treasured tidbits might help others.

Peter Kaisen, a 76-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, retired police officer, beloved husband and grandfather, was a regular patient at the Northport VAMC and may have been suffering from depression, his son-in-law said. “He was a family man. Loved NASCAR, loved animals, [loved] his three daughters and seven grandchildren.”

According to the report, the veteran "had been frustrated that he was unable to see an emergency room physician for reasons related to his mental health.”

“Honestly, you just lied in so many different ways!”