V A Death Cases 'Profile' Denied

VA Death Cases 'Profile’ Denied

FRIDAY AUG 29 1975

The Federal Bureau of Investigation today denied a report that a U-M psychiatrist has been called into the investigation of seven deaths at the local Veterans Administration Hospital.

Dr. Derek Miller, a practicing psychiatrist with offices at the University Hospital, reportedly was asked to construct a “profile” of the person who may have injected lethaL doses of a muscle relaxant into the VA Hospital patients. Two weeks ago, the FBI was requested by Hospital Administrator Arnold Mouish to launch a probe of 41 breathing failures of patients after three of-the patients had died in a single day.

“I don’t know anything about a Dr. Miller,” Jay Bailey, chief of the FBI office in Detroit said. “I never heard of him. If he were to construct a profile of someone we may be looking for we’d probably look at it. But at this point I can’t see the value of such a thing. If we’ve got a psychiatrist in the case I haven’t been informed of it.”

Dr. Miller, who specializes in adolescent psychiatry, was unavailable for comment on the report of his part in the investigation.

And Dr. Duane T. Freier, acting chief of medical staff at the VA Hospital, declined comment on the report.

FBI Agent Bailey said nothing new has developed in his agency’s investigation of the hospital deaths. He said interviews at the hospital are continuing.

In an attempt to halt rumors about another breathing failure death, Ann Arbor police requested an autopsy on a quadraplegic who died at University Hospital Wednesday night. The patient was a young man who had been paralyzed since a swimming accident some time ago, officers said. He entered U-M Hospital recently for spinal surgery.

Wednesday night he stopped breathing and immediate resuscitation efforts by doctors and nurses partially revived him, police learned. But moments later he again stopped breathing and further resuscitation efforts failed.

Police said an autopsy revealed the fatal breathing failure was caused by a massive blood clot in the lungs of the patient. They said the autopsy revealed no drugs were involved in the death.