Va Fights Back Two

Berta · July 21, 2008

"Gov't wants Ky. widow's suit over VA death tossed

By JIM SUHR – 1 hour ago

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The U.S. government has asked a federal judge to throw out one of two lawsuits filed by Kentucky women who claim that surgical care at a southern Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital killed their husbands.

In court papers filed Friday in East St. Louis, Ill., the government claimed that Katrina Shank — whose husband, Robert Shank III, apparently bled to death in August after gallbladder surgery at the Marion VA hospital — failed to file a required affidavit, a letter from an expert attesting there's a reasonable basis for the lawsuit.

Shank's attorney called the filing a stall tactic, saying Illinois requires such affidavits in malpractice cases filed in state courts but that they're not mandatory for malpractice cases filed in federal court.

"If the court feels it is required, we'll get one," attorney Stan Heller said.

In a separate filing Friday, U.S. attorneys asked a judge for more time to respond in writing to a similar lawsuit filed in April by Darla Marshall, whose husband, James, died of a blood infection in July 2007, six days after he underwent a lymph node biopsy at the hospital.

The government's response had been due Monday. There were no court hearings scheduled on either lawsuit.

Katrina Shank seeks $12 million in damages, Darla Marshall $10 million.

Randy Massey, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Fairview Heights, Ill., declined on Monday to elaborate on the government's position on the lawsuits. Messages left Monday with the VA's headquarters in Washington were not immediately returned.

The suits name only the U.S. government, which runs the Veterans Affairs system that includes the Marion hospital.

Robert Shank and James Marshall were patients of surgeon Jose Veizaga-Mendez, who resigned three days after Robert Shank's death.

Surgeries at the Marion site — which serves veterans from southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky — were halted in August after the VA found at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 were "directly attributable" to substandard care there. Those deaths did not include Shank's or Marshall's.

The lawsuits accuse the government of negligence, saying it inadequately checked Veizaga-Mendez's background before hiring him in January 2006.

They claim a better check would have uncovered Veizaga-Mendez's "history of providing substandard care to his patients" in Massachusetts, where he was under investigation for allegedly botching seven cases in 2004 and 2005, including two that resulted in deaths. He has made payouts in two Massachusetts malpractice lawsuits.

Veizaga-Mendez's Illinois license was indefinitely suspended by regulators in October. The next month, he was permanently barred from practicing medicine in Massachusetts.

Veizaga-Mendez has no listed telephone number and has not responded to repeated messages left by The Associated Press at a Massachusetts home listed as an address for his wife.

purple · July 22, 2008

this kind of stuff....and things i've seen on my own at Dayton....make me terrified to have to have anything done at the VA.

MRRRR5 · July 22, 2008

Again,

this is the type of stuff that rubs me the wrong way with how Vets and their families are treated.

Then, even in the face of actual malpractice and prior malpractice on this doctor from another state (MA) where 2 others lost their life under his care, some government attorney is going to try and "spin" this to say what he did was legitimate. :rolleyes:

What a crack of bullsh*t!!! <_<

halos2 · July 22, 2008

Read about this quack originally from Vawatchdog.org 10/29/2007 #2 Trail of Misery Follows VA Doctor. He is responsible for up to 10 deaths in Marion, and 8 patients with substandard care of which 2 died while in Mass.area. No one ever checked him out...He hurried up and left Mass. and came to Il and no one checked his previous employment...sad but true.

Sounds like another Michael Swango case. He killed some in Ohio then came back to Quincy Il and tried to poison his fellow paramedics and went to jail 5 yrs...got out and went to VA Med Center in South Dakota as Dr but forged papers with another name(he was a dr) then went to VA Med Center North Port Long Island New York and killed 3 vets and to Africa and killed more but he admitted to killing 4 people but they say he killed 30-60.

It is unsure how many vets he really killed. He was a genious but very disturbed. He was in the Marines after he graduated college before he went to medical school. His dad was lifer Army Officer.

My point is the VA never did check him out as they didn't with Veizaga-Mendez. Why is it ok to give vets second rate care? You can fight for freedom, but you can't fight for adequate care. How many other's are out there giving substandard treatment to vets? There should be mandated regulations, background checks before any are hired.

Read about this quack originally from Vawatchdog.org 10/29/2007 #2 Trail of Misery Follows VA Doctor. He is responsible for up to 10 deaths in Marion, and 8 patients with substandard care of which 2 died while in Mass.area. No one ever checked him out...He hurried up and left Mass. and came to Il and no one checked his previous employment...sad but true.

Sounds like another Michael Swango case. He killed some in Ohio then came back to Quincy Il and tried to poison his fellow paramedics and went to jail 5 yrs...got out and went to VA Med Center in South Dakota as Dr but forged papers with another name(he was a dr) then went to VA Med Center North Port Long Island New York and killed 3 vets and to Africa and killed more but he admitted to killing 4 people but they say he killed 30-60.

It is unsure how many vets he really killed. He was a genious but very disturbed. He was in the Marines after he graduated college before he went to medical school. His dad was lifer Army Officer.

My point is the VA never did check him out as they didn't with Veizaga-Mendez. Why is it ok to give vets second rate care? You can fight for freedom, but you can't fight for adequate care. How many other's are out there giving substandard treatment to vets? There should be mandated regulations, background checks before any are hired.

Berta · July 22, 2008

This is why I have been aggressively pursuing recent info I found as to my husband's wrongful death-

The VA in 1997 was supposed to report the amount of my settlement and charge it (on paper) to the numerous VA doctors who committed this malpractice.

In light of the recent VCS Veteran's lawsuit (which VCS is appealing) I began to check into something I had sent many FOIAs to VA on over the years without a satisfactory answer from them.

I took the time to find out the entire MOS of the Gov when a FTCA settlement has been paid-

then I knew exactly what to look for and sent the VA FOIAs which I already knew the answer to-

to see what BS they would give me-

2 are in progress now-

Carlie here has found that the VA did not report her FTCA doctors and I know for a fact they didnt report them in my husband's case.

One main reason for reporting these quacks is to prevent further malpractice.

Maybe if the VA did report them all- there would be fewer doctors left at the VAMCs-

I have asked Congressman Filner, H VAC-to look into this matter-

If the VA doesnt know how many veterans have committed or attempted to commit suicide- then they dont know how any vets they have harmed by piss poor medical care, or how many they have killed by it.Particularly if they fail to report these doctors in a mandatory agreement the VA has had since the 1980s with the NPDB.

Paul Sullivan, attorney for the vets VCS lawsuit in SF, was astonished when I told him Section 1151 awards , even if they are death awards, are not subject to the reporting requirement.

The doctors don't even have to be named and are not even disciplined.

Only an FTCA settlement- signed between the USA and a claimant- is subject to the reporting requirements to the NPDB.

It makes me realise that although I dont always advise FTCA in addition to filing a Section 1151 claim (as the FTCA provides a lump sum award compared to a Section 1151 monthly comp award-and FTCA has the offset factor-

I now realise that all of the successful Section 1151 claims that vets and widows have won had no impact at all on the further ability of the malpracticing doctors-and they continued on as VA docs- with the full reins to continue to be incompetent.

I suggest now tha anyone filing 1151 should also file under FTCA.

If they reap a large settlement and then are awarded Sec 1151 comp which would be offset to their FTCA amount- with some careful investments they can recoup money that can technically recover some of the offset amount.

And more importantly the FTCA docs would have to be reported to the NPDB (if the VA follows the mandatory requirements on that)

I have been stunned and outraged since realising fairly recently that these VA quacks who killed my husband got by scot free.

This was not a few medical errors that the VA could have mitigated- it involved 4 initial years of negligence and then a VA cover up of that negligence in 1992.

I thought for years my husband's death had meaning and had prevented further malpractice on vets-but I was wrong-

he died in vain and the VA is going to have to answer for that.

This might be the reason the VA refuses to read my IMos for my AO claim.

The malpractice was worse than I thought when I filed FTCA.

Berta · July 22, 2008