An Air Force Veteran battling cancer was bitten more than 100 times by ants days before he died at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Georgia, according to his daughter.
Laquna Ross found her father, Joel Marrable, covered in swollen bite marks while visiting him at the Eagle's Nest Community Living Center in Atlanta last week.
"When I took his hand out, it was really swollen, and he flinched," she told the New York Daily News. "I was really worried and asked a staffer if she could come take a look."
The staffer told Ross that "it's getting better ... you know ... from the ants."
Days earlier, one of the nurses had gone into Marrable's room and discovered him "covered in ants," the staffer said.
"She told me, 'We thought Mr. Marrable was dead. We didn't know what happened with all the ants. We jumped into action, took him into the shower and covered his nose so he could breathe while we washed them off," Ross said.
Terrified by the description, Ross went to hospital administrators, who agreed to move her father to a new room in the middle of the night of Sept. 6. Marrable, 74, would die hours later, on Sept. 7.
Ross recalled her father keeping a good attitude throughout his battle with cancer.
"He had cancer for three years and spent 14 months at the VA. We made a bucket list and went to the Bahamas and laughed and joked up until the end. He was at peace with dying, so it's so unfortunate this happened right at the end," Ross said.
The Atlanta Veterans Affairs Health Care System issued a statement apologizing for the ant infestation.
"We would like to express our heartfelt remorse and apology to the Veterans' families and have reached out to them to offer appropriate assistance," the statement said.
The bedrooms at the center have since been cleaned and a pest control company was hired to address the problem.
Ross said she spoke out to increase awareness and prevent other patients from suffering the same fate.
"I understand mistakes happen. I've had ants. But he was bit by ants two days in row," she said. "They feasted on him."
The VA has spent the last five years trying to improve the conditions of its facilities after suffering a series of high-profile scandals starting in 2014. President Trump has issued several directives and signed into law various measures aimed at improving the well-being of Veterans, including the VA Accountability Act, which makes it easier to fire VA employees who engage in misconduct. In addition to improving its facilities, the VA is working to address the suicide epidemic among Veterans.
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