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Veteran Awarded $600,000 for VA’s Failure to Refer him for Medical Treatment
All Veterans who currently receive or formerly received VA Medical Care should read this story to see if this same type of VA Malpractice happened to them. If it did, then they may have a Legal Cause of Action for a Federal Tort Claim. Even if the Statute of Limitations has expired you can still file a SECTION 1151 CLAIM for Service-Connected Disability which has NO TIME LIMIT. At the end of this story there will be a Link with further information about SECTION 1151 CLAIMS and suing the VA for Medical Malpractice in a Federal Tort Claim, among other things.
Deasy v. US., 99 F.3d 354 (1996)
VA Hospital Malpractice; Failure To Refer Patient
Under Colorado and Maryland law, the evidence supported a district court’s finding that Veterans Administration (VA) psychiatrists committed malpractice by failing to refer a patient for medical treatment for his edema, held the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. This was so even though the government claimed the plaintiff’s psychiatrists were not qualified to offer expert opinion on the standard of care required of physicians who treat edema, since the relevant issues in the case were whether it was a breach of the psychiatric standard of care to fail to refer the patient and whether failure to do so increased the patient’s psychiatric symptoms, on which the psychiatrists were qualified to give expert opinions, said the court.
The court also found that the district court’s award of damages to the patient in the form of a reversionary trust for lifetime medical and psychiatric care outside the VA system was not clearly erroneous, as the patient was entitled to a lifetime of free care in government hospitals, but, due to the VA’s malpractice, further treatment in a VA hospital would result in a recurrence of the patient’s serious psychiatric problems.
In addition, the court held that an award of $600,000 to the patient for pain and suffering was not excessive. Failure to treat the patient’s severe case of edema resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In this case, a patient brought a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suit for medical malpractice against the U.S. and VA hospitals. The district court entered judgment for the patient, and the appeals court affirmed.
Click onto Link below to read original story.
http://www.forensic-psych.com/articles/caseDeasyvUS.php
Click onto Link below for information about SECTION 1151 CLAIMS and Federal Tort Claims.
Click onto Link below to read related stories Information on medical malpractice at Veterans Administration Hospitals and why the VA spends more than $100,000,000 on malpractice each year and how the VA defends …
http://www.vamalpractice.info/oig_reports.htm
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=37408
Posted by Terry Richards on Jun 23 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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[...] Court Awards $600K to Veteran for VA Hospital Malpractice, Failure to Refer Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: 99 F.3d 3549(1996); VA Malpractice; Failure to refer; 10th Circuit;, Deasy v. US. — veteranclaims @ 5:49 pm Full Article at: Veteran Awarded $600,000 for VA’s Failure to Refer him for Medical Treatment [...]
So glad to hear of someone succeeding with the VA.!!Cudo’s to you and your determination. My husband didn’t live long enough to collect and I was a poor replacement for him. They do allow me a meager pension but they act like it come’s out of their pocket and they tore his written requests to shreds in Washington. They even discredited one of our fine local physician’s because he wrote a letter on his behalf for me after his sudden death. You are a credit to veterans everywhere, God Bless.
Hmmm. Long time ago (Ok it was after Desert Shield/ Storm & Watch but before this last foreign discussion) I was sent by my PCM doctor to get a 2nd opinion for a needed spinal surgery. Well, me being still young and dumb at the time, I set up an Appt. at the VA hospital in OKC & I took the MRIs, the Military Medical records and the new ones to the VA Dr. there. Well, instead of the qualified DR. I got his asst. and his quote was “I can’t find the problem. You’re going to have to live with the pain” & they sent me down to get an X-ray, (why can’t they look at the MRIs?) and it went down hill from there, (think there is an article about folks with spinal problems being depressed and very short tempered all the time, but it’s a mystery as to why). Anyway about 6 weeks later I had the Spinal surgery done somewhere else, got my two months convalescence (should have been 3) and from about that day forward I use that ‘incident’ as the standard of care from the VA. Yes I know it is better, I haven’t found it yet but I keep looking. Think i got something if I use this in my final claim to the VA?
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