Cancer doctor Amy Reed's widower learns VA won't permit burial in national cemetery

The husband of Amy Reed, the physician and patient-safety advocate who died last week after a public battle against cancer, has lost his appeal to Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin to have her buried in a national cemetery.

Hooman Noorchashm had sought a special concession to have Reed buried at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Newtown, not far from the family's Yardley home.

"I am disappointed," Noorchashm said Wednesday. "I felt compelled to make the ask. It wasn't just on a whim. It wasn't just an emotional husband just grieving.

"She didn't just die of a bad cancer," he said. "She fell to a public health disaster that she was able to bring to light.  And now other women will not fall to it."

Burial in national cemeteries is normally granted to military veterans and their spouses.

But Noorchashm said federal law provides that "civilians of significant and exceptional contribution to America's health and safety" may be accorded that honor at the discretion of the secretary of veterans affairs.

Ronald E. Walters, the department's interim undersecretary for memorial affairs, first told Noorchashm that he could not designate his wife as eligible for burial at Washington Crossing, and wrote to Noorchashm again Tuesday evening to say that a review of the case supported his initial decision.

Reed, who was an anesthesiologist and had a Ph.D. in addition to her medical degrees, grew up in Bucks County. She was the mother of six children.

In his request to the Veterans Affairs Department, Noorchashm, a cardiothoracic surgeon, said his wife's efforts to alert the public and the Food and Drug Administration to the dangers of the electric, or power, morcellator had saved countless lives. Morcellators are surgical devices now believed to spread undiagnosed cancers.

He noted that the FDA issued a warning about the device in 2014 and that the leading manufacturer of the device had abandoned it. Most hospitals have stopped using it.

A Funeral Mass for Reed, 44,whose death last week followed her fight to end a once-routine medical practice that spread her undiagnosed cancer, will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, 1723 Race St. The Mass will be preceded by a calling hour from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Visitors may also call from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Church of St. Andrew, 81 Swamp Rd., Newtown.

Contributions may be made to the Slay Sarcoma Research Initiative at www.slaysarcoma.com.

Noorchashm said burial will be in Newtown Cemetery.