Just days before Sgt. Quandarius Stanley died in his Veterans Affairs hospital bed, his mother saw a glimmer of recovery.
The 23-year old soldier was struck by a forklift last May, resulting in devastating head injuries, while on the ill-fated U.S. mission to build a pier off Gaza for humanitarian aid delivery. He was left fighting for his life in an Israeli hospital, then transferred to Texas for months of intensive care — unable to move or speak.
He had been deprived of air for as long as 12 minutes and needed to be resuscitated. His mother, Anna Stanley, said she was told by his care team in Tel Aviv they made a mistake with his breathing tube. The “inadvertent esophageal intubation” starved his brain of oxygen and blood flow, causing “severe anoxic brain injury,” his VA records later noted.
The care he received made his mother uneasy. His room lacked a suction device, which would keep him from choking on saliva, she said. The staff gave him quick sponge baths, not showers. He was often drenched in sweat.
In late October, a dental hygienist asked him to open his mouth for a quick look. He opened wide — the first time in five months he had responded to anyone, his mother recalled.
The room erupted in applause. Anna was deep into planning for his discharge, and this small miracle filled her with hope. He would need lifelong care, but he would be home.
In the predawn morning of Oct. 31, VA hospital staff found Quandarius unresponsive. His mother rushed to the lobby, still in her pajamas, and banged on the glass doors at the entrance, desperate to see her son.
He was already dead.
“They dropped the ball,” Anna said in an interview, with reams of VA records stacked on her coffee table detailing the death of her only child. “Everybody was shocked.”
The private autopsy she requested would raise alarming questions about Quandarius’s final moments.
His blood showed “markedly elevated levels” of a medication used to treat his involuntary movements, and he probably died as a result of the toxicity, the report found. The autopsy also detected the presence of alcohol, a bewildering conclusion given his only way to ingest nutrients was through a feeding tube in his stomach.
His family has been left to confront these mysteries on the first anniversary of his injury off the Gaza coast, and the first Memorial Day at home without him.
Army and VA officials, they said, have been unable to fully answer two essential questions: What or whom was at fault for the forklift injury at sea? And why, when Quandarius showed promise of getting better, did he die unexpectedly under close medical supervision?
This story is based on interviews with the Stanley family, the findings of an Army investigation into the incident off Gaza and a review of dozens of pages of Quandarius’s medical information, including VA records and his private autopsy report.
VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz declined to answer questions about Stanley’s care and death at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. VA officials also declined requests to make Quandarius’s doctors available for an interview, or say whether his death was investigated.
“VA extends its deepest condolences to the family of Sgt. Stanley,” Kasperowicz said. “VA remains committed to providing high-quality care to all Veterans.”
Army Central, which oversees operations throughout the Middle East and led the accident investigation, found numerous leadership shortfalls and safety gaps in Quandarius’s brigade but said it did not recommend any punishment over the forklift accident. It also did not identify any commander or unit responsible for the outcome.
“Multiple factors contributed to this incident,” said Lt. Col. Christina Wright, an Army Central spokesperson, who said the findings helped implement safer methods to work on temporary piers. More than 60 personnel were injured on last year’s Gaza mission.
Anna was left frustrated by the Army’s lack of accountability and communication. Social media posts and comments on Instagram provided more information about the accident than the Army itself, she said, and journalists received the Army’s findings before she did, sending a message that leadership has not prioritized him or his family.
The report mentions her son’s first name 19 times. It’s spelled correctly only once.
