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At the Indian Health Service hospital in Pine Ridge, S.D., a 57-year-old man was sent home with a bronchitis diagnosis—only to die five hours later of heart failure. When a patient at the federal agency’s Winnebago, Neb., facility stopped breathing, nurses responding to the “code blue” found the emergency supply cart was empty, and the man died. In Sisseton, S.D., a high school prom queen was coughing up blood. An IHS doctor gave her cough syrup and antianxiety medication; within days she died of a blood clot in her lung. (Frosch and Weaver, 7/7)

The Indian Health Service is responsible for providing medical care to about 2.2 million tribal members across the U.S., but the system is in crisis after IHS hospitals repeatedly failed inspections, shut down services or lost access to crucial federal funds. The facilities, which operate in some of the poorest areas of the country, have rendered dangerous care and caused unnecessary deaths, according to federal regulators, agency documents and interviews. (Frosch and Weaver, 7/7)