Received Re[ly From Va Attorney On Tort Claim

[littlejuniata]

They want to know of any non VA hospital or doctor within the last 5 years, statements of income fo five years, number of dependants, and a detailed report from a medical expert outling in full where the VA fell below the generally acceptable standards at time of treatment. Any and all hel appreciated. (I was here before asking for advice and the forum is great, I didn't know wether to continue the old discussion or start a new one, sorry if I messed up)

Edited July 2, 2007 by littlejuniata

[Ricky]

Seems as though these are standard questions they must know to see if you have a claim.

-Have you been in the hospital in the last five years due to the va mess up

-How has the va mess affected your income during the past five years and how many dependants were also affected.

-And a current IMO which comments on the va failure and the effects on you because of it.

If you want to continue the tort claim them you will have to provide the above. It will cost you for the IMO but if there was a va medical failure and it has negatively effected you then only you can make the decision. The only problem I see is you are going to have to pay for the IMO before the attorney will even provide an answer/decide if the claim is worth pursueing.

[Berta]

I never got a letter like that for my FTCA claim. But basically it is to determine cause and affect.

I attached to the FTCA SF 95 the veteran's Sec 1151 claim, his autopsy findings, and one piece of the proof.(initial med cert showing malpractice)

Then I sent in more evidence- in separate submissions-my husband's med recs, -the ones that specifically showed malpractice had occurred.I highlighted with magic marker what the records revealed, what the treatment and follow up (in most cases no follow up or wrong meds) in each situation of malpractice (there were multiple incidents)and clearly stated that the standard medical community would have properly diagnosed and treated his many conditions yet the VA , as the clinical record of the veteran reveals, did not treat any of his conditions properly and the result was that they caused his death.

That was years ago and I studied medicine to determine for myself if they did or didnt malpractice on him. They did.

I suggest however-these days to get an IMO and as Ricky says , a good malpractice lawyer will want an IMO.

Malpractice involves two things-clear cut bonafide proof of negligence and also a resulting documented disability or death that is directly due to the malpractice.

Edited July 2, 2007 by Berta

[littlejuniata]

Thanks for the replys folks, appreciated, the error was that they cut my cartoid artery then didn't notice it until I had lost nearly all of my blood, wouldn't that be two major mistakes? They were in a teaching environment for Pitt students and evidently were not too attentive when wacking me up??

[Berta]

Send copies the medical summary and reports of all this from your medical records to the regional or general counsel who has asked for a response.

MAke sure the discharge certificate is with it and also the documentation of the blood transfusions.

Clearly state a before and after- supported by medical evidence-

Before the surgery your condition was ------- and after the surgery you developed ---------, whatever the additional disabling problems were due to this medical error.

The average human body has about 4 to 6 liters of blood- that is about 6 quarts depending on age, size, etc.

You will have to prove that since you nearly lost all of your blood- they had to replace a significant amount of blood.

This as well as the carotid repair surgery should be evident in your medical records.

Copy those records and use a bright highlighter pen and circle it all for the VA counsel.

There should have been an incident report on this also- and maybe the Director of the facility would be able to get that for you-

(and maybe not as when the VA gets FTCA or 1151 claims- they will try to deny the claimants access to everything-

best to get it all before filing FTCA or 1151.

PS- it doesn't matter whether these are considered two medical mistakes or one-

my claim stated that VA had committed "multiple" errors.VA stated that too on the award.

The fact is one medical error can domino into many-

Just clearly state with the supporting medical evidence (I always use Exhibit A, B. C etc on the attachments and refer to them this way in the narrative)

how the initial arterial medical error caused the loss of blood, tell them how much blood, and how due to this error you have additional documented disability and then tell them what disabilities this error caused.

Add documentation of medical proof of the additional disabilties.

Edited July 3, 2007 by Berta

[littlejuniata]

Thanks Berta: The current VA doctor I am seeing and the ones before that have told me that my heart was damaged, that I will never regain full use of my arm and that my lousy posture will not improve, I have seen no other doctors in the past five years, except one for a minor office visit, the VA has all records and my total history for the past 10 years as well as my current condition, they know my situation, why do they want the IMO? Thanks again, in my opinion it was inattentivness on the surgeons part both the initual cut and the lack of prompt response to the blood leakage, the surgeon who sewed the artery back up, said the artery was so badly mangled that she had to sever it and start from there. Also since the operation I have been on daily thyroid medicine. I actually think they just needed a person to fill the school surgery demonstration, before surgery I had no shortness of breath or chest pain with all their tests, they tested my in my local VA for valve leakage, then tested again in the operating hospital. Since I am retired there has been no money loss. Before the operation I was a healthy 71 year old 180 pounds who was very active and fit, good sex life, fly fishing, trail bike riding, walking shooting hoops with the grandkids, now I am am a frial 150 pounds who can no longer load our bikes on top of the car due to the arm problem, have very little energy and zero sex life. As far as I know the lawyer is in the same hospital as the surgery was done, possibly in the same building?

Edited July 3, 2007 by littlejuniata

[littlejuniata]

Send copies the medical summary and reports of all this from your medical records to the regional or general counsel who has asked for a response.

MAke sure the discharge certificate is with it and also the documentation of the blood transfusions.

Clearly state a before and after- supported by medical evidence-

Before the surgery your condition was ------- and after the surgery you developed ---------, whatever the additional disabling problems were due to this medical error.

The average human body has about 4 to 6 liters of blood- that is about 6 quarts depending on age, size, etc.

You will have to prove that since you nearly lost all of your blood- they had to replace a significant amount of blood.

This as well as the carotid repair surgery should be evident in your medical records.

Copy those records and use a bright highlighter pen and circle it all for the VA counsel.

There should have been an incident report on this also- and maybe the Director of the facility would be able to get that for you-

(and maybe not as when the VA gets FTCA or 1151 claims- they will try to deny the claimants access to everything-

best to get it all before filing FTCA or 1151.

PS- it doesn't matter whether these are considered two medical mistakes or one-

my claim stated that VA had committed "multiple" errors.VA stated that too on the award.

The fact is one medical error can domino into many-

Just clearly state with the supporting medical evidence (I always use Exhibit A, B. C etc on the attachments and refer to them this way in the narrative)

how the initial arterial medical error caused the loss of blood, tell them how much blood, and how due to this error you have additional documented disability and then tell them what disabilities this error caused.

Add documentation of medical proof of the additional disabilties.

Berta: VA atty says incident report would be protected by 38 USC 5705, whatever that is??