My Brother Mike The Rest Of The Story

[Pete53]

Re: My Brother Mike passed on Christmas Day

The story behind the Story. Mike was my best friend since we were toddlers. We pretty much thought the same way, liked the same food, the same sports and took pretty much the same meds. He was 6'5 and I thought that he would live a long time more than me.

In September Mike called me and said he was in Hospital and he thought he was going to be diagnosed with cancer. After one week in Hospital an Army Hospital used by VA for emergencies. It turned out he had something called psoratic arthritis and was very anemic one of the symptoms. He also had high white count in blood and the VA gave him anti biotics that caused major problems.

Over the next four months he made quite a few visits to er mostly to get morphine for pain. By my count he went to hospital or er probably a dozen times. All the time they kept juggling medicine and their diagnosis. One day he would have kidney stones and shortly he would not have them.

Mike kept telling me that he could not tolerate the pain. Just beofre my birthday he called and told me that he had been in an ambulance for over 11 hours while VA and Army fought about who was going to take care of him. I begged him to go to any place but VA as he had regular insurance.

By Christmas Day Mike had given up on any kind of proper care or relief and shot himself in the head when his wife went to Kitchen to make breakfast. She found him and called me.

I have been devastated and so has his family. I swear if it is the last thing I ever do I will help his wife sue the VA.

My advice to anyone who uses the VA is to be careful.

[Berta]

Pete- unfortunately a Section 1151 award for negligence does not have any method of accountability at all against any VA health care provider.

Only when the VA settles a FTCA for a cash amount does the mandate of the NPDB kick in.

This mandated agreement between the VA and the National Practitioners Data Bank states that VA must report any FTCA settlement with a charged amount against the physicians involved.Their names become part of the Dept of Health and Human Services Disiplinary Action Data bases that are all public knowledge on the net.

When I settled with VA years ago I made it clear I wanted the malpracticing doctors to be accountable by some sort of reporting steps. I did not know at that time that there was an established mandate in place between VA and NPDB.

Last year I not only learned of the data bank-I went through the entire HHS for NYS and didnt find any doctor at all who had contributed to my husband's death.I wrote and called the OGC and received responses on this omissions that were highly deficient and pursued that situation as I considered my FTCA case was still open as I was misled into thinking some sort of disciplinary actions were taken against these doctors.

Ironically my BVA award re-opened my FTCA matter anyhow with the OGC-I just got a letter from them-and that issue is now "pending authorization" for whatever that is worth at the Buffalo VARO.

My point here is that a 1151 award does NOT sanction or discipline anyone at the VA.

A Section 1151 award only compensates for VA caused disability or death.

Still if this claim succeeds it will provide the widow with DIC.

The standard for and criteria for Section 1151 DIC is exactly the same as for any FTCA claim- probative medical proof of negligence , or omissions of acts etc-that directly contributed to the veteran's death.

I mentioned here many times that negligence and malpractice always has a paper trail. The trail can be quite skillfully hidden within medical records but will reveal itself with thorough readings and studies of the medical documentation. This is why it is best to get an IMO when malpractice is considered.Without having an IMO I had to study cardiology and neurology to prove my FTCA and 1151 claims years ago.When I re-opened I found some additional malpractice right away (which an IMO doc might have caught years ago)and my IMO doctor in 2005- immediately agreed with the evidence I found.

You have a great idea for the IMO problems vets have- it is absurd that these IMOs can be so costly for those who can least afford them

I wish the major vet orgs would fire their dead weight vet reps who do lousy work and put this mo9ney into an IMO fund for anyone on their POA.

IMos are often the only way to succeed on many claims and the DAV,AL, VVA's annual rates of awards would surely go up with this kind of evidence.

The veteran or widow could sign an agreement to refund the IMO money if their claim succeeds.

Still it would become a pick and choose situation as not every vet's claim might warrant an IMO-because some IMOs might not help a claim at all.

[Pete53]

Berta:

Dear Friend that is what I want is a settlement so that someone pays professionally for the VA. But its not about me it is for his wife Becky who is still sleeping on her living room couch cause she can't go into their room.

As it stands now I will put the info together and make an appointment with a Lawyer if she wants that. I believe that even 2500 settlement pulls the trigger on the Data Bank.

[Berta]

Yes Pete - as I understand the NPDB agreement too-any $$$ settlement triggers a report to them.

God knows how many VA health care providers were found guilty of negligence and medical errors in Sec 1151 awards over the years but they all went on scot free to malpractice on more veterans.

No VA medical professional ever gets up on the AM determined to harm a veteran with lousy care.

I think the biggest problem is that doctors need to keep up on the latest medical info available and often probably need to be re-trained and take more courses in medicine.

Then again there are VA doctors like Michael Swango who killed at least 3 VA veterans and possibly as many as 30 or more private hospital patients before he was caught up with years ago.

The VA never properly vetted his credentials and he lied on his VA application form for employment anyhow.

It was due to his VA application's lies as to his background and forsenic work by Dr. Michael Baden and also VA lawyers who got him put where he deserves to be.

Robb Graham Medical Malpractice attorney has the full story on Swango here:

http://www.vamalpractice.info/dr_swango1.htm

Robb's email is at this site I believe for anyone to contact regarding tort claims .Last time I talked with him he said he was very very busy with malpractice claims.

He will still answer questions in general about FTCA torts I am sure.

[Pete53]

Once again thanks Berta

[BoonDoc]

I don't know what your going through...but I do know what my family has gone through with suicide in the family last March 2009.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, and the rest of your family.

Boon

[free_spirit_etc]

Pete,

Thank you for accepting my post in the spirit in which it was intended. I was hesitant to post it because I was afraid I might come off sounding like I was trying to discourage you or tell you what to do. And I certainly did not want to do that. I just wanted to give you a gentle warning, as I wish I would have waited until I could handle being told my husband's life wasn't worth much before I pursued any action.

But I believe you are wise enough to know when the time is right for you, and I admire you in your quest to protect and assist Mike's widow - as well as to bring a sense of justice and honor to his death.

It is hard to imagine the desperation your brother must have felt in order for him to leave in the way he did. It must have been excruciating.

My thoughts and prayers stay with you,

Free

Free thank you very much for your comments. I know that the Lawyers look at suffering and death differently than family and friends and I accept that. I am very sorry for how your husband suffered and his poor treatment.

My Brothers case is more based on seeing if an 1151 claim could provide benefits for my sister in law. We have discussed it and I plan to review all the paper work in Feb and make a recommendation to her.

Its not really so much about the money and the benefits anymore as she is ok on that score its to make someone accountable and perhaps make the people who handled his illness to not do it again.

Even as little as 2500 will make a record that is a mark against a Doc and maybe in the end that is all that is needed. I think that if an apology was made that would stop it also.

I am moving on to work on a plan I have to try and recruit Doctors who are retired to work on IMO's for Veterans for standard fees and to link them to Lawyers and Service Organizations where the Service Organizations and Lawyers screen the Veteran and even advance the Fee's and also train the Docs as to the VA Language.

My first candidate is a recently retired MD who flew jets for the NAVY has a Law Degree and trained to do Medical Opinions for Corporations.He does not know it yet but I plan to approach him about it next week.

Thanks to all who answered my posts and threads and especially to those who made comments in Mike's On Line Obituary.If the VA cvan have QTC why can't Veterans have something similar?