Marine veteran gets locked in Florida VA clinic and calls 911

ORANGE CITY, Fla., July 23 (UPI) -- A Marine Corps veteran had to fight to get out of a VA clinic in Florida earlier this week after he was locked inside while waiting for a doctor.

Jeff Duck went to the VA Outpatient Clinic in Volusia County on Monday and was sent to a waiting room. When no one showed up after an extended period of time, Duck got up to leave and realized he was the only person left in the building.

When he attempted to leave, an alarm went off. Duck called 911 to apprise police of the situation and waited for them to arrive.

"In the military, you never leave anybody behind," Duck told My News 13. "This kind of leaves the feeling -- obviously I was left behind. It's disappointing. I can't say I blame anybody, but we see it throughout the whole VA system, and that's the way it works."

The VA medical director called Duck to apologize and the agency issued the following statement about the matter on Tuesday:

"We want to apologize to Mr. Duck for his experience yesterday at the Orange City VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic. The Orange City VA's Chief Medical Officer reached out to Mr. Duck to assist him with his health care needs. We are looking at our closing procedures and will make changes to ensure that this does not happen again.

Duck went to the clinic to see a doctor about getting a refill of his pain medication.