2 VA Indictments To Be Sought

2 VA Indictments To Be Sought

Copyright 1976, The Ann Arbor News

BY WILLIAM B. TREML

News Staff Reporter

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit will ask within the next two weeks for the indictment of two Filipino nurses who have been questioned about the deaths of patients at the local Veterans Administration Hospital. The Ann Arbor News has learned.

A reliable source told The News that Richard DeLonis, chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s office, is completing a final review of the case and will ask for indictments of Mrs. Leonora Perez, 31, now of Chicago, and Miss Fili-pina Narciso, 29, an Ypsilanti resident.

Mrs. Perez and Miss Narciso were both questioned last November by a federal grand jury in Detroit and Miss Narciso was called back a second time to complete her testimony. Both women are registered nurses who were on duty in the local VA Hospital's Intensive Care Unit at the time more than 40 breathing failures and nine deaths occurred among patients last August.

Traces of pancuronium, a powerful muscle relaxant, were found in body fluids of some of the patients who were revived in the series of incidents. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents said it was possible the pancuronium was intentionally injected into the veins of patients affected. Persons receiving pancuronium who are not on an artificial breathing machine will suffocate in minutes unless given immediate medical attention.

The News has learned that DeLonis is nearing completion of his review of a ponderous FBI report on the hospital deaths and has decided to seek the indictments against Mrs. Perez and Miss Narciso. A source said the action to obtain the indictments from the grand jury now sitting in U.S. District Court in Detroit is expected to take place before Feb. 1.

DeLonis was in conference and unavailable for comment this morning on the indictment report. Thomas C. O’Brien, retained by Mrs. Perez and Miss Narciso last fall as legal counsel, said today he had not heard of the indictment move.

“That’s a new development to me,” O’Brien said. "We haven’t been told. The only action of which we’re aware is the call for Mrs. Perez to appear again this Thursday before the federal grand jury. She’s coming back from Chicago to appear and I’ll accompany her to the grand jury room. But of course she'll testify without her counsel present as the feder al law provides.”

O’Brien said if federal indictments are returned against his clients a trial date will be set. Then, under federal court rules passed last summer, the defendants will be entitled to a number of “discovery" motions through which the federal prosecutor will be required to furnish the accused with evidence to be used against them in a trial. Attorney O’Brien said.

“The discovery rules for federal courts have been considerably liberalized and the defendant is entitled to view the evidence to be presented at trial,” O’Brien said.

Also to appear with Mrs. Perez in Thursday's session of the federal grand jury is Barbara Terrien, a recent nursing school graduate, who has been working at the local VA Hospital.

Miss Terrien, whose name has not previously been mentioned in the five-month-long investigation, reportedly declined to answer questions of FBI agents luring the probe.

At the hospital on Fuller Road the daily routine for patients and staff is virtually back to normal. Gary Calhoun, administrative aide to Dr. S. M. Lindenauer, chief of staff, said today the patient census is now 299, within a dozen of the institution's capacity.

That number is the highest since the FBI was called in to investigate the breathing failures and deaths last Aug. 15. At the height of the probe Dr. Lindenauer ordered a restricting of patient admissions and the establishment of a security system for patients in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

Calhoun said today the security system for Intensive Care patients and those receiving intravenous medication remains in force.

Calhoun said the additional nurses hired last September to aid in the security and patient care areas are still employed and the nursing staff now numbers 129. There are an additional 112 members of the staff, he said.

Attorney O’Brien said that federal authorities are paying transportation costs for Mrs. Perez’s return to Detroit from Chicago for Thursday’s testimony. He said she is still employed in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago and is assigned to a cardiac unit.

It was through O’Brien’s intercession that Mrs. Perez received a request transfer from the Ann Arbor VA hospital to the institution in Chicago last fall. She had earlier asked for the transfer when her husband obtained a Chicago job but the transfer was held up by VA Hospital officials when the patient death investigation began.

“She’s settled there in Chicago with her family, is working and content,” O’Brien said. “We’ve told the federal authorities in Detroit that she is available when and if she is wanted for further testimony. That’s what Thursday’s appearance is about.”