Durbin to update progress at Marion's scrutinized VA hospital

MARION, Ill. -- U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is in Marion, assessing the amount of progress made at the Veterans Affairs hospital there since it suspended inpatient surgeries last summer.

The Illinois Democrat is to meet with the VA's interim director, top-level staff, a group of employees and local veterans who got care in Marion.

A VA investigation found that at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March of last year were "directly attributable" to substandard care at the Marion hospital.

Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated, 10 patients died as the result of questionable care that complicated their health. Investigators couldn't determine if the care actually caused the deaths.

The hospital serves veterans from southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky.