TARPON SPRINGS, Fla.
(WFLA) - As his wife Sheila held Lonnie Kilpatrick's hand, his daughter Kassie
recorded some of his last words.
The Navy veteran said
there is a reason for everything - his struggle with the VA, his impending
death.
"Make something out
of it, make it count," Lonnie said in a weak voice.
We met Lonnie in February,
shortly after he learned Stage 4 kidney cancer had spread through his
body.
"That
hit me like a ton of bricks," he told us from his bed in Holiday in
February.
For
good reason. For four years, doctors at the VA at Bay Pines said his back
pain was arthritis and disc related.
"Just
couldn't get nobody to take it serious that, hey I've lost 50 pounds,"
explained Lonnie at the time.
The
VA treated Lonnie for kidney cancer in 2013, pronounced him cancer-free,
then missed its recurrence.
"You
know you're going to lose him and that could have been prevented if the
VA had followed up," said daughter Keri Ackerson.
"I'm
mad because this should never have happened, this should never happen to
anybody," his wife Sheila stated.
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