MARION, S.C. (WBTW) — A Marion mother is searching for answers as to how her son died in a South Carolina VA hospital after she says he was improving from an injury he sustained while on military duty in the Middle East.
Anna Stanley’s 23-year-old son Quandarius was seriously hurt while delivering aid on an American-built pier in Gaza. Military officials have not provided many details, but said he was not in combat.
Quandarius was a motor transport operator attached to the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, the Associated Press reported.
News13’s Annette Peagler spoke exclusively with Anna Stanley, who’s anxiously waiting on test results to shed some light on what may have happened.
Video taken just days before Stanley’s death show a glimmer of hope as he battles an anoxic brain injury, which occurs when oxygen can’t reach it.
Stanley was injured on May 24 while working on the structure designed to bring humanitarian aid to the region.
“He was sitting up on his own for a couple of minutes, to holding his straight to saying, ‘mom, mom,'” Anna Stanley said. She remained by her son’s side during his long health journey that spanned from Israel to Texas and back to South Carolina.
But after just days at WIlliam Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, Quandarious died on Halloween.
“I don’t know if he was getting the right amount of medicine, because that’s the only thing they had to do, was give him his medicine. He was stable,” she said.
Anna is now demanding answers from the VA and working to learn more about what went wrong in Gaza.
“I asked them, ‘what happened to my baby? What happened to my baby,'” Stanley said.
As she waits for autopsy and toxicology results that were conducted Nov. 5, Anna tries to focus on good memories of her son.
She’s pulling strength from her faith and church along with pride knowing that Quandarius continued his grandfather’s legacy of military service.
“My dad told him when he got out of high school, ‘son, go and see the world. It ain’t nothing around here, so go and see the world,” she said. “So that’s what he did.”
Pentagon officials say the Gaza floating pier operated for roughly three weeks, delivering 20 million pounds of aid.
The Columbia VA Health Care System expresses its deepest condolences to Sgt. Stanley’s family during this difficult time,” the VA said in a statement to News13. “While we cannot comment on specific patient care due to privacy laws, we remain committed to providing compassionate and high-quality care to all veterans.”
