In 2017, Luke Smyth, a 37-year-old Navy veteran, was placed in care at the Dorn V.A. Hospital in Columbia. Less than 24 hours after being admitted into the facility, Smyth got into an altercation with another patient which prompted several Dorn staff members to wrestle the veteran to the ground.

As featured on A veteran died after being restrained by SC VA hospital staff. Now his family is suing. A lawsuit filed in July by Navy veteran Luke Smyth's parents in United States District Court in Columbia alleges that staff at Dorn "continually applied pressure to his neck" which caused their son to be slowly asphyxiated.