Veterans dying from overmedication CBS NewsCBS News Veterans by the tens of thousands have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with injuries suffered on the battlefield. Many of them seek treatment at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Now a CBS News investigation has found that some veterans are dying of accidental overdoses of narcotic painkillers at a much higher rate than the general population and some VA doctors are speaking out. Five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left 3. Army Spc. Scott Mc. Donald with chronic back pain. A coroners report determined Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran Scott Mc. Start following this video and watch its growth, daily. Follow. VIDEO. Blind. YouTube Channel. Read more. Google DeepMind Vs Go Champion Lee Sedol. Google DeepMind And NHS To Fight Blindness With AI Machine Learning. How To Watch AI Showdown Online ibtimes 2. BAFTA 2017 live streaming Where to watch award show live online. Where to watch live. Notes On Blindness Under The Shadow. Watching The Great American Eclipse. Watching The Great American Eclipse Can Cause Blindness. Leave Your Camera at Home Live science Heres How to Watch the. Watch Ready 2 Die Streaming. Watch Blindness Online Ibtimes' title='Watch Blindness Online Ibtimes' />Donald had been overmedicated and that he died from the combined effects of five of his medications. CBS News. His wife Heather said over the course of a year, VA doctors in Columbus, Ohio prescribed him eight pain and psychiatric medications. Watch Blindness Online Ibtimes' title='Watch Blindness Online Ibtimes' />VA sheds light on mental health of Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis. Accounting disagreement delays construction of veterans clinics. Injured war veterans find therapy in golfIt just got out of control, said Heather. They just started pill after pill, prescription after prescription. Then a VA doctor added a ninth pill a narcotic called Percocet. Watch Sinbad: Where U Been? Online more. Later that evening, Heather came home from work and found Scott disoriented on the couch. Scott Mc. Donalds widow, Heather, recalled her husband getting eight pain and psychiatric medications. She plans to sue the VA. CBS News. And I asked him, Heather recalled, You didnt by chance by accident take too many pills, did you And hes like, No, no. I did what they told me to take, Heather. I popped a pillow under his head and thats how I found him the next morning, exactly like that. Mc. Donald wasnt breathing. The coroners report ruled his death accidental. He had been overmedicated and that he died from the combined effects of five of his medications. Theres an overuse of narcotics, Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a physician at the VA medical center in Jackson, Mississippi. Its the first reflex for pain. Hollenbeck raised her concerns with the federal government about the VAs practices about prescribing narcotics. The people in charge said, We want you to sign off on narcotic prescriptions on patients you dont see, she said. I was absolutely stunned. And I knew immediately it was illegal. It works on the surface. It keeps the veterans happy. They dont complain. Theyre not coming in as often if they have their pain medicine. And the people in charge dont care if its done right. Original 90210 Season 2 Episode Guide. Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a VA physician, expressed her concerns about the VAs practices in prescribing narcotics with the federal government. CBS News. CBS News obtained VA data through a records request which show the number of prescriptions written by VA doctors and nurse practitioners during the past 1. The number of patients treated by VA is up 2. A dozen VA physicians whove worked at 1. VA medical centers told us theyve felt pressured by administrators to prescribe narcotics and that patients are not being properly monitored. I have seen people that have not had an exam of that body part that theyre complaining of pain in for two years, said a doctor who presently treats pain patients at the VA and had asked not to be identified. Its easier to write a prescription for narcotics, and just move along, get to the next patient. Were letting people come in and prescribing massive doses of narcotics and they also are on drugs for mental health problems, the doctor continued. By giving those kinds of quantities of pills, one might assume that requires a rather close eye being kept on the patient. You would think so. But it isnt the case, said the doctor. We gathered data from five of the states with the most veterans. We found they are dying of accidental narcotic overdoses at a 3. Dr. Robert Kerns is the director of pain management for the VA nationwide. Were faced in this country with an important health crisis that were talking about today related to prescription drug abuse, he said. But we have a similar crisis with chronic pain in the way that its managed in this country. Kerns said the VA is taking action to ensure that both patients and providers are aware of the risks and benefits of narcotics. Providers are trained to have a thoughtful discussion with their patient to share concerns about the limited potential benefit of these medications, he said, but also these risks that we are talking about today. Heather Mc. Donald said she plans to sue the VA. He never should have been taking those many pills, said Heather of her late husband. But he trusted his doctors. My husband served honorably and with pride and dignity not to come home and die on the couch. The VA declined to talk to CBS News about the specifics of the Mc. Donald case and this story. But Kerns, with the VA, had a couple of points he wanted to make. First, while narcotics opioids like Percocet are not a last resort, theyre not the first line treatment either. Secondly, if one looks at the statistics, the number of veterans with chronic pain being treated with opioid therapy is relatively small.