ST. LOUIS • In the wake of an HIV and hepatitis scare from improperly sterilized dental equipment at John Cochran hospital, veterans like Fred Nolting are lumbering out of the medical center with patches of white gauze marking the spot where their blood has been tested.

"I've been coming here for 30 years," Nolting, 52, of Overland, said Wednesday from under a Navy blue cap that read U.S.S. Towers. "They've been treating me like a good vet. I think I am all right."

Nolting is one of 1,812 veterans the Department of Veterans Affairs started warning this week that they may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis B and C viruses from dental work at the hospital during a 13-month period that ended in March. The clinic was temporarily closed for two weeks to address the safety lapse.

The VA clarified in a prepared statement Wednesday that a routine inspection in March discovered that "certain dental instruments" were cleaned in a way that wasn't recommended by the manufacturers.

"In fact, the dental staff were pre-cleaning the instruments without using the proper detergent, unwittingly compromising the cleaning process."

The VA said it could not assure a risk level of "absolute zero" and decided to notify veterans with certified letters. The VA said no one is known to have been exposed to the viruses.

Meanwhile, Earlene Johnson, 53, of south St. Louis, came forward to say she had warned management at John Cochran of unsanitary cleaning practices she saw while working there. Johnson said she has 30 years of experience with sterilized instruments.

In an August 2009 e-mail to hospital supervisors, she outlined suggestions that included a "more effective" way of sterilizing instruments.

"There were procedures that needed to be in place," said Johnson, who said she spent nearly a year at the hospital assembling trays of instruments that had been through the cleaning process.

"The instruments were coming out bloody — not all of them, but some of them."

She said she was fired from John Cochran for "unprofessional conduct" and is legally contesting the dismissal.

"I tried to make improvements, but I got pushed away," she said.

Marcena Gunter, a Veteran Affairs spokeswoman in St. Louis, declined to respond to Johnson's remarks until she researched the matter further.

Also on Wednesday, Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Christopher Bond, R-Mo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote a curt letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki expressing concern about the management at John Cochran. The letter mentions previous problems at the hospital involving reprocessing endoscopes and frequent customer service satisfaction problems.

"We are also deeply concerned that the VA took four months to notify veterans who may have been endangered by the flawed procedures," the letter says.

The veterans who have been notified primarily served during or before the Vietnam War, as service members in Iraq and Afghanistan are referred to dentists outside of the VA system.

Nolting, the vet who was tested Wednesday, won't get his results for a couple of weeks.

He suffered a head injury in the Navy and is on full disability. Nolting said his mind is "wasted." He often forgets things and has seizures.

Asked what he'd do if he's infected, he said: "I'd still come here."