George Nelson Shaw Sr., 81, of Wallace, West Virginia, was admitted to the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in March 2018 for low blood pressure and dehydration and initially appeared to be improving. On or about March 26, 2018, he suddenly developed severe hypoglycemia despite having no history of diabetes and no insulin prescription. He never fully recovered and died at the VA on April 10, 2018.

An investigation later found that Shaw’s hypoglycemia resulted from multiple insulin injections. His body was exhumed in January 2019; further examination identified insulin at four injection sites, and a military medical examiner classified the death as a homicide. Federal prosecutors charged nursing assistant Reta Mays with administering exogenous insulin to Shaw; she later admitted to that killing and others as part of a guilty plea. The case was part of a broader probe into unexplained hypoglycemia and deaths on Ward 3A.