A Psychopath at the Pittsburgh VA

UPDATE: Please also check out my new book, The Definitive Dossier on PTSD in Whistleblowers, for only $3.99, in which I dedicate chapter four entirely to the exploits of Dr. Anna Chacko. 

Dr. Anna Chacko

Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others

Impulse control problems

Irresponsibility

Inability to tolerate boredom

Pathological narcissism

Shallow affect

Deceitful/manipulative

Aggressive or violent tendencies, repeated physical fights or assaults on others

Lack of empathy

Lack of remorse, indifferent to or rationalizes having hurt or mistreated others

A sense of extreme entitlement

Lack of or diminished levels of anxiety/nervousness and other emotions

Promiscuous sexual behavior, sexually deviant lifestyle

Lack of personal insight

Failure to follow any life plan

Abuse of drugs including alcohol

Disregard for conventional moral right and wrong

Glibness/superficial charm

Grandiose sense of self-worth

Pathological lying

Cunning/manipulative

Lack of remorse or guilt

Emotionally shallow

Callous/lack of empathy

Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Criminal versatility

That's a fairly size able list of Psychopathic behavioral traits. A few days ago, I did a story that centered around a doctor named Dr. Anna Chacko. Dr. Chacko is currently the head of radiology in the VA hospital in Pittsburgh. I also believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's a Psychopath. Dr. Chacko has engaged in a reign of terror that has taken her all over Texas, Colorado, San Francisco, Boston, Butte, Montana, Hawaii, and most recently Pittsburgh. What I'd like to do is list off some examples of the characteristics from some of the most intense stories I've heard about her so far. I've had about ten conversations with folks from Butte, Mt., Boston, Ma., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Seattle Wa. This is the most shocking stories and the body of work will leave the reader with no doubts. Dr. Anna Chacko is a Psychopath and she's currently working at the Pittsburgh VA Hospital. I'd like to start with the bottom and work my way up.

1)Criminal versatility

There are several great stories of Dr. Chacko's criminal versatility. Let's start with her relationship to Dr. Bob Shah. This is a doctor that seems to follow her almost everywhere she goes. (Dr. Chacko on page 1 and both are on page 8 Lab Project) I can confirm that he now works with her at the Pittsburgh VA, prior to that at St. James Hospital, at the Lahey Clinic (in the benefactors section pages 5 and 6), and at the Boston University Medical Center. I also know that they were stationed together at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas as military M.D.'s. Sometime in the early 1990's. Dr. Shah made an error in reading an X ray. As a result, he missed some sort of a treatable abnormality. Because it wasn't caught, the patient died. This would be a civil lawsuit in the regular medical world. In the military however, there's no such thing as a civil suit. It's all criminal. He would have been facing serious hard time. Instead, Dr. Chacko made sure the x ray got lost and he got off. Now, however, he follows her around the country wherever she needs him. She'll force him to move his family without notice. He has to do it because she uses that as blackmail against him and has since the incident.

For about 6 years she worked at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. She worked there for an unusually long while. Often Dr. Chacko doesn't make it for more than a year and a half. She stayed around longer because initially she turned the radiology department around. She upgraded their technology and streamlined their operation. That was what the folks at Lahey call the "honeymoon period". Soon after, she turned but by then she had long ingratiated herself there.

Now, normally it's easier for Dr. Chacko to manipulate the system in a VA where she has more connections. Keep in mind she's a twenty year veteran. So, it's often more difficult for her to manipulate the system in a private hospital. This is important to know because Dr. Chacko always attempts to get kickbacks through her ability to facilitate equipment purchases. She gets into bed with equipment makers like Fuji and GE. She directs their business to the hospital she's working at and they give her a kickback. This is what she would have liked to do at Lahey and sometimes she did. (there's a great story on that which I'll tell later)

So, Dr. Chacko figured out how to make money from a VA regardless. There was VA in the area. It's called the West Roxbury VA Hospital. At this hospital, they had unusually good radiologists. The lead of the department was a gentleman named Dr. Elon Gale. At some point, Dr. Chacko befriended Dr. Shukri Khori, the head surgeon at the West Roxbury VA Clinic. Dr. Chacko got Dr. Khori to go to the Inspector General of the hospital and complain that Dr. Gale's contract was negotiated improperly. This was the first of several complaints that Dr. Khori filed against the department. While the charges were eventually dismissed. Dr. Gale experienced such a hostile work environment that he left the clinic and he took most of the good radiologists with him.

With the radiology department in tatters, Dr. Chacko swoops in and offers for Lahey to contract out staff, equipment, and supplies to the VA Hospital. More than that, she used many of her connections in the VA to secure it. Then, once she swooped in, she was then able to secure it so she made all the decisions for the department. They buying and kickbacks began. Now, I'd say that's extremely criminally versatile.

2)Emotionally shallow.

She's married and has been for a bit. That said, her husband is a house husband. She likes it that way. Then, she has total control over him. It's said that when she gets home, she purposely makes a mess of her clothes. Then, she sits back on the couch while her husband gets on his knees to pick up all the clothes and put them back in the right place. She expects him to wait on her hands and knees. That's what she gets.

3)Cunning and manipulative.

Most of the time, Dr. Chacko would simply lie on the form when getting a new job when it asked whether she had been fired before. Of course, most of the time she was travelling from state to state. For whatever reason, interstate didn't catch it unless you looked closely. Most new companies didn't or Dr. Chacko arranged the job. In this case, she needed to move quickly from Lahey to BU. She she had to have a new job secured before she was fired or that would come up since it was within the same state. It got so out of control at Lahey Clinic that management sent in a spy to be her new "radiology manager". Once they got enough evidence, they were ready to remove her. She knew it was only a matter of time till they physically removed her. She began to furiously fill out and fax everything to BU. She barely made it also. She literally sent them out on a Friday and Monday security was called in to remove her. She screamed "kiss my big Indian ass" the whole time the guards were carrying her out.

4)Pathological liar

First, Dr. Chacko, more often than not, gets kicked out of places rather than quits. If you are fired at a hospital, you are supposed to disclose that to the next hospital. She hasn't and that's an example of her pathological lying. In court documents in her case against Kristi George (Montana Second Judicial District Court Silver Bow County Cause No DV 07-298), Ms. George accused Dr. Chacko of smearing her behind her back. Kristi George was the radiology manager of St. James hospital. Dr. Chacko would use her position in power to buy all sorts of equipment and services all while getting a kick back from the company. She needed a dirty radiology manager to pull this off since the radiology manager is the one that makes those orders. John Elliott is one such dirty radiology manager and he often follows her around the country. So, it was imperatively that Dr. Chacko get rid of Ms. George. As such, Dr. Chacko engaged in a systematic campaign of talking bad about Ms. George. Dr. Chacko would criticize and complain about Ms. George. In fact, the court documents even conclude that Dr. Chacko was doing this with the intent of getting Ms. George to leave. Dr. Chacko is also accused of altering medical reports. She's en accused of allowing her husband access to patient records. This is all merely during her fourteen months at St. James Hospital in Butte, Mt. St. James is a co defendant for allowing Dr. Chacko to reign free. In fact, the whole Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health Systems, Inc. which the system that St. James is a part of, is a co defendant, along with 5 John Doe defendants. In cour documents, it's stipulated that "Dr. Chacko made statements at the time that she knew were untrue." There's of course no better source than court transcripts. In fact, this is her M.O., it's to make up false hoods against people she doesn't like in order to try and get them to leave.

5)Grandiose self worth.

A great example of this is how Dr. Chacko force all her colleagues to call her Colonel. Even forcing her husband to pick up after her is a sign of that.

6) Promiscuous behavior

This one is hard to read however Dr. Chacko is prone to speaking inappropriately about a plethora of sexual escapades in her past. In one story, she got into a limo wearing NOTHING but a fur coat. From there, Dr. Chacko described in graphic detail a night of wild sex. Finally, Dr. Chacko was kicked out of the military for sexual misconduct. It was later white washed by her political fixer, Lt. General James Peake, the former head of the entire VA system. Then, there's her book, Out of India. It's full of raunchy stories about her in her youth in all sorts of sexual encounters.

7) Pathological Narcissism

This almost goes without saying. She has hurt many, many people, from Boston, Burlington, Butte, Mt., Colorado, all over Texas, San Francisco and in Hawaii. She's done all this to benefit herself. No matter how wealthy she gets she demands to have more. She expects to control everyone she comes into contact with. She has a group of cronies that include such names as Dr. Bob Shah, John Elliott, and Scott Steinfeldt. They follow her around the country whenever they're told to do so by Dr. Chacko. Dr. Shah, for instance, has been with her at the Lahey Clinic, BU Medical Center, St. James, and now at the Pittsburgh VA. The examples of her narcissism are everywhere and I could literally go on forever.

8) Irresponsibility

Of course, in a sense, her whole entire life is irresponsible. Specifically, before she even arrived in Butte, Montana, she accused a doctor there of threatening her harm and implying he would shoot her, even though she knew they'd never had more than a fifteen second phone call.

9)Impulse control problems.

Dr. Chacko often got a kickback from the machine maker. In one case, Dr. Chacko secured a deal with a machine maker just as it was going under. In between the time it was secured and the equipment was delivered, her contact at the company had lost their job. So, Dr. Chacko wasn't going to be able to get the kickback. So, while it was being delivered she demanded the salesperson take it back. As a result, the sales person could be heard yelling, "you certainly didn't have a problem with our machines when we were sending you to India".

I can also confirm that Dr. Chacko, while in Butte, Mt., was involved in lawsuits with at least two former colleagues, the aforementioned Ms. George and Dr. Jesse Cole. Dr. Chacko arrived in Butte, Mt. in June of 2007 and was gone by the next summer.

10)Reckless disregard for the safety of others.

In fact, that's often the conclusion of the court in her case against Ms. George. For instance, "Chacko knew or should have known that her actions would cause George serious emotional distress" was the conclusion at one point. She had no qualms about blowing up the radiology department at the VA in Boston in order to generate more business for herself.

Obviously, I could go on and on. Hopefully, no one doubts that this woman is a real life Psychopath. That's the context for the situation she's in now. Currently, she works at the Pittsburgh VA. She's the head of radiology. She's been there since October of last year. About three years ago, there was an investigation into a strand of legionella that went missing at this same Pittsburgh VA. Two administrators, Dr. Rajiv Jain and Dr. Mona Melham, were deeply involved in that scandal. These are two of the administrators that Dr. Chacko answers to, though that's currently in name only. So, Dr. Chacko has come in, totally terrorized everyone, and when there were complaints, she made it seem as though it was a conspiracy put in motion by Drs. Jain and Melham. The hospital tried to get rid of her both this past March and May but Dr. Chacko was able to call in serious political juice and stop it. I know this because I have incontrovertible evidence that Congressman Brad Miller told the current head of the V.A. General Eric Shinseki as much back in May of this year. Congressman Miller lead the investigation in 2006 that fingered both Dr.'s Jain and Melham. Soon after this correspondence, word came down from the General's office to the Pittsburgh VA that Dr. Chacko would stay on board. So far, neither Congressman Miller nor General Shinseki have responded to either of these stories.

This is a hospital with a lot of foreigners that aren't yet U.S. citizens. She has all the connections she needs from her two decades in the military and her connection to General James Peake. In fact, I am nearly certain that she has her current job because of Peake. I can confirm that she loves to put a photo of General Peake in her office. That's what she did while working at Lahey and, at the Pittsburgh VA, there's a photo of Peake in her office.

She is trying to run the entire department. She wants to either have a lackey in place or intimidate staff so that she does as she pleases. That way no one will get in the way of her as she totally transforms the department and gets a kick back from all of the transformation. She's already been pushing some new GE machine even though the current one works just fine. She's being resisted by most of her staff because it works fine. She will probably need to get rid of most of them if she's to make any new purchases. She clearly has the will, the psychopathy, and the juice to do it also. She's willing to exploit any and all weaknesses in this hospital to get her way. Her agenda as always is to figure out how to make as much money as possible through any shady deal necessary. Because she has an extraordinary amount of juice at the VA system, she is capable of nearly anything, and that's what she'll do to achieve her goals.

As you can see, I have presented a dynamic in which there is plenty to exploit. This is the nightmare facing the Pittsburgh VA unless she is stopped. At least three people, and almost certainly many more, are directly responsible for this. First, it's Congressman Brad Miller. I encourage you to call his office at 202-225-3032 and email has press person Luann Canipe at luann.canipe@mail.house.gov. Please ask politely why Congressman Miller insists on protecting this Psychopath. Ask him how much he knew about Dr. Chacko before he reached to General Shinseki on her behalf. In fact, his colleagues on the House Health and Science Investigative sub committe should know about what Congressman Miller has done.

You should also email the head of the VA, General Eric Shinseki at eric.shinseki@va.gov. He's ultimately responsible for keepin her in her job. Ask him if he knew about her entire history before he micromanaged in the business of the Pittsburgh VA and forced them to keep her on.

Also, you should contact Matt Dinkel, matt.dinkel@mail.house.gov, the main press person for Congressman Mike Doyle. You can also call Doyle's D.C. office at 202-225-3084. This hospital is in his district and he should know exactly what the threat to his constituents is.

Epilogue:

Here's the definitive dossier of Dr. Chacko.