A Kentucky woman has agreed to take nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the U.S. government of negligence in her husband's death at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Marion.

An attorney for Katrina Shank says she agreed to a $975,000 settlement in the August 2007 death of 50-year-old Robert Shank. He died a day after having gallbladder surgery.

Katrina Shank's lawsuit contends the government failed to sufficiently check the background of her husband's surgeon before hiring him in 2006.

Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez (vy-ZAH'-gah MEN'-dez) resigned three days after Robert Shank's death. Major surgeries have been halted at the Marion VA after investigators found several deaths linked to substandard care there.

Veizaga-Mendez wasn't a defendant in the lawsuit.

There's no public comment yet from the VA.