Probe of Vets Home Death Continues

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A criminal probe into the beating death of a 95-year-old man who was a patient at a state-run veterans nursing home remains open, according to Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell.
The victim, Leonard Fiume, died in late April only days after his bloodied body was found in a patient room at the 196-bed Gino J. Merli Veterans Center in Scranton, PA.
In a report made public late last week, inspectors from the state health Department blamed a sister agency, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, for failing to protect Leonard Fiume.
"The facility failed to prevent the physical abuse of one resident which resulted in serious bodily and physical injury and subsequent death of one resident," the report states.
Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the agency that runs the state veterans homes, said the agency was continuing to work with the Scranton Police Department.
"We are working with the Scranton Police Department and are unable to comment further as this is part of an ongoing investigation, Joan Nissley wrote in an email response to questions.
The Health Department report states that Scranton Police have determined that the death was a homicide.
Fiume was found in room 220 at the Gino Merli Veterans Center along with a 78-year old Alzheimer's patient. Neither of them was assigned to the room, which was apparently empty.entered the second floor room separately a few minutes apart on April 22. They were together in the room for about 11 minutes.
They were discovered when a nurse passing the room heard a wheelchair alarm go off, which meant a patient was no longer sitting in the wheelchair. She then discovered Fiume lying bloodied on the floor and the 78-year-old close by. The younger patient charged that Fiume had come up from behind and started attacking him.
"He (Fiume) just started hitting me. He came from behind. I tried to protect myself," the 78-year-old told the health inspectors.
According to the report Fiume and the 78-year-old had confrontations in the past and the 78-year old had struck Fiume's wife, also a Merli resident, on the leg.
Fiume died in a local hospice four days after the confrontation.
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