Mclean, U.S.A. – On July 27, 2012 Lynette Spano, founder of Stars, Stripes, & Hearts, announced that her organization is producing a national benefit concert in Washington, D.C. at the historic Warner Theater on October 15, 2012, in recognition and support of Latino/Hispanic American military service members and their families.

Spano, a Puerto Rican American, is among the most successful Latina businesswomen in America. As a way of giving back, she created the first ever online wall of honor, www.awarriorswall.org, where anyone can tweet a photo of a loved one serving in the military.

Her latest and most ambitious effort is the creation of Stars, Stripes, & Hearts, dedicated to raising funds through national benefit concerts in support of exceptional health and education-related charities that provide comprehensive and culturally competent support services to Latino/Hispanic military families impacted by the invisible wounds of war.

Her first concert will be held during National Hispanic Heritage Month. All proceeds from the Bandera y Corazones concert series will be donated to charitable organizations that provide relief to Latino/Hispanic service members and families impacted by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), depression and other invisible wounds of war. Latinos/Hispanics have higher rates of PTSD than any other ethnicity or race in America.

Although all proceeds from the concerts will be donated to charities that provide assistance to military veterans and families facing challenging circumstances, the concerts themselves will be a celebration – a celebration highlighting the strength, honor and commitment of our men and women in uniform and the vast contributions of Latinos and Hispanics serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Invitations to perform at this year’s concert have been extended to leading Latin recording artists, such as Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

“Latino/Hispanic families, statistically speaking, have suffered more than any other ethnicity in America during the recent military conflicts overseas,” says Spano. “However, no one has thanked them in a way that recognizes who they are, where they come from or how important they are to the strength, vitality and security of this great nation.”

For information, please visit http://www.starsstripesandhearts.org/ or e-mail StarsStripesandHearts@gmail.com.

Image Courtesy of  s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

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Registered nurses at a Manhattan Veterans Affairs hospital failed to notice a patient had become disconnected from a cardiac monitor until after his heart had stopped and he could not be revived, according to a report Monday from the VA inspector general.

The incident from last June was the second such death at the hospital involving a patient connected to a monitor in a six-month period. The first, along with two earlier deaths at a Denver VA hospital, raised questions about nursing competency in the VA system, ProPublica reported last month.

The deaths also prompted a broader review of skills and training of VA nurses. Only half of 29 VA facilities surveyed by the inspector general in a recent report had adequately documented that their nurses had skills to perform their duties. Even though some nurses “did not demonstrate competency in one or more required skills,” the government report stated, there was no evidence of retraining.

Monday’s report documents the June 2011 death of patient in his 80s at the Manhattan campus of the VA’s New York Harbor Healthcare System. The man had undergone several heart procedures and needed to have his vital signs continuously monitored, the report said.

On his fifth day at the hospital, monitor records show that an alarm indicated a problem with the device or the patient. But there is no evidence nurses were aware of the alarm until the man was discovered unresponsive an hour and a half later. He was declared dead shortly afterward, the report said.

“The patient’s telemetry status was not effectively monitored at the time of his death due to a lack of awareness of the disconnected lead,” inspectors concluded.

Registered nurses assigned to telemetry units typically place cardiac leads, set parameters for the monitors tracking each patient, verify heart rhythms and take appropriate actions if there is an irregularity. They also enter progress notes and inform doctors of any changes.

Ironically, federal inspectors were in the hospital the same month to investigate the first death, which occurred in a different monitoring unit in January 2011.

During that investigation, the inspectors discovered nurses at the hospital didn’t understand how the monitors even worked. None of those interviewed could accurately explain what would happen if a patient became disconnected from a cardiac monitor.

Inspectors also found no evidence that the nurses’ competence had been checked. Records showed that one of the patient’s nurses had last received training on the monitors 13 years earlier, according the October 2011. The report recommended sweeping changes and retraining, which the hospital agreed to implement.

IG inspectors were not notified of the second death at the Manhattan facility until someone complained in November 2011, five months after the alarm was missed and the patient died.

The latest report does not recommend any additional changes or training at the hospital because “managers have made significant progress” after the first report.

In a response to the inspector general, the hospital acknowledged receipt of the report and said it concurred with the document. A spokeswoman for the VA in Washington didn’t immediately respond to our requests for comment.

by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, ProPublica, May 15, 2012, 3:06 p.m.

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