Psychiatrist who treated Iraq war veteran fired following patient's death

January 14, 2008

On January 14, 2008, Kentucky psychiatrist William Kearney was relieved of duty with the Louisville Veterans Affairs Medical Center—placed on a 30-day administrative leave—pending further review of his treatment of a soldier Kearney treated who was found dead in his barracks at Fort Knox in September 2007.  An autopsy found the soldier (who had been wounded in a roadside bombing in Iraq and arrived at the VA in April 2007) had been dead for hours and might have been unconscious for days prior.¹