S. Dakota hospital denies surgical scars say KKK

Published



SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A lawyer for a Rapid City-area hospital being sued by a blind man who says the letters KKK were carved into his stomach during surgery said the accusations were contrived by other people and that every scar “is explained by the medical procedures that he underwent to save his life,” according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Vern Traversie, a 69-year-old Lakota man living on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, filed a federal lawsuit last month against Rapid City Regional Hospital, its board of directors, several physicians and others. He claims he was left with scars on his abdomen in the shape of the three letters following heart surgery last year.

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