St. Louis Va Dental Disease Exposure

[gdsnide]

OK I received a letter from the St.Louis VA saying " I may have been exposed to Hepatitis B,Hep C & HIV

Letter said to come in & get a blood test if one wants & "Don't worry" as its no big deal problem as someone wasn't cleaning Dental Tools correcttly & you may have been exposed to these diseases

I was at the VA Hospital today & my Daughter called me & told me about the certified letter I had received & what it said

I had a blood test & they said they would have the results in about 2 weeks

Everyone very reassuring that its very unlikely anyone has anything so stay calm

Find article about this below Not sure what is going on but sounds rather serious to me....Was told I could file a claim or a tort claim on this but guess that depends on the blood tests

Also, we're to be retested in 6 months

Does anyone know if it's possible this stuff won't show up in a blood test & one still has it?.....GARY

Veterans receiving dental care may have been exposed to ...

Jun 29, 2010 ... (KMOV)-- More than 1800 veterans in the St. Louis area may have been exposed to potentially life threatening diseases at the John Cochran VA Hospital. ... The veterans administration is contacting veterans from Missouri ...

www.kmov.com/.../Veterans-receiving-dental-care-may-have-been-exposed-to-potentially-deadly-diseases-97431474.html - 2 hours ago

[Tbird]

I received a phone call yesterday from Congressman Carnahan regarding the email I sent him, quoted below. He was very kind to me and angry at the VA, we went over the letter. I explained to him that the dental clinic moved and my concerns over the time line of events.

I also told him my concerns of a domino effect since they knew about this in March and didn't notify us till June 29. So if anyone does test positive it's hard to say how many folks they may have infected before they got the letter. He was very concerned about this also, it is a major concern of his.

He is outraged at the way the notified us, he is angry that it happened in the first place and he is bound and determined to get to the bottom of this. Whether they have to change medical staff or administrative staff or whatever it takes.

I was very pleased with our conversation and I am anxious to see the hearing. I will keep you posted as this continues. Suffice it to say that I don't think Congressman Carnahan or Congressman Filner are going to let the VA get off with a slap on the wrist.

Letter sent to Congressman Carnahan

Congressman Carnahan -

First, thank you for your service to our country.

Your time is valuable so I will get right to the point. I am a veteran that was notified by the John Cochran VA Hospital regarding possible infection/exposure to HIV or Hepatitis.

Well Mr. Carnahan I have a few things I'd like you to check out for me.

The letters were received by veterans on June 29 2010, they knew about this in March 2010, but somehow they were unable and I quote "identify all "who were potentially at risk,", before the new dental clinic opened in May 2010. This seems like something worth taking a look at. Now if you go to the Dental Clinic it's all bright and shiny new and even on a different floor.

"The VA issued a statement Wednesday that said dental clinic at the hospital was shut down while an inspection was done and a newly renovated space already under construction during the period under question opened up in May. The St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center provides health care to more than 50,000 veterans a year." FoxNews http://tinyurl.com/2cymeh8

"The current situation came to light in a routine inspection. A spokeswoman for the department said that V.A. procedures called for instruments to be cleaned with a special detergent before being sterilized, but that the St. Louis center had failed to do so. Asked why the department waited three and a half months to notify veterans, the spokeswoman, Katie Roberts, said in a statement that it wanted to identify all "who were potentially at risk," adding, "V.A. is in the process of standardizing the standard operating procedures for the cleaning of all reusable medical equipment across the country." NYTimes http://www.nytimes.c.../us/01vets.html

Full Disclosure: I am the founder of a website located at http://www.hadit.com and I have had a few things to say about this. So please do feel free to read it.

I am a service connected disabled veteran Total and Permanent I have PTSD, Ihis has not helped, but I feel between you and Congressman Filner you will be able to get to the bottom of this. Thank you for your time and for looking out for us.

Tbird

Founder HadIt.com Veteran To Veteran LLC

Established Jan 20, 1997

[Tbird]

Yesterday, Wednesday July 7 2010, I went for HIV/Hep blood test at the VA. You could tell they had really screwed up by the way they had Dental Review Clinic set up.

First off you walk in and there are large signs with arrows pointing the way and by every sign are at least one VA employee with a blue shirt on. I asked the first blue shirt were do I go, and they escorted me to the next blue shirt, who escorted me to the next blue shirt, I had my sister with me and they had a nice waiting area for her and asked her if she would like any juice or water.

Then you go in and see a corpsman, who explains what happened and explains HIV/Hep, he then asked me if I am sexually active and if you are they offer you condoms and stress not to have unprotected sex, no open mouth kissing and do not share razors, nail clippers etc. with anyone.

So then he takes you over to the blood draw, and they draw 5 or 6 tubes of blood. After that they ask if you would like to talk to a Medical person, a Chaplain or a Social Worker. I walk into that office and say I want to vent who do you want me to talk to. The Social Worker, poor woman. So I vent to her, and when I am done I go to the Travel office and they give $5.87 for the trip. Normally I don't get travel pay, but since this was a screw up on their part everyone who was there for the blood test got travel pay.

The first corpsman you speak to gives you a folder with information about the HIV, Hep B and Hep C. There is a piece of paper in there explaining 1151 claims, but no FTCA form, which I hadn't noticed. So as I am leaving the VA, I run into a veteran I know and she asks me did you get the FTCA claim form. I say no it's not in here, so back down to the corpsman we go. The FTCA forms are on a literature rack right outside the corpsman's cubicles so I grab one.

We ask to speak to the supervisor, we tell her those forms should be included in the packet. I say I am computer savvy and could probably find the form online but a lot of our veterans are not. She says that it is not required to be in the packet and I strongly suggest that they start putting it in the packet. So who knows if they will or won't.

So next week I go back to be tested again and then we wait, it takes two to three weeks for the results to come back. So I have probably a total of 4 weeks I have to wait for both test results. It is very stressful.

So if you pray, pray for all of us to come back negative. If you don't pray, please think positive thoughts.

[Berta]

I certainly believe in prayer Tbird and will pray for you and all of the over 1,800 vets who got those letters.The letters alone would be enough to put many vets and their families into a panic.

I never dreamed things could get so bad at the VA that they would advise veterans of their 1151 rights at a VA medical facility. (and you were Right! the SF 95 should be in every packet they give to the vet).

The SF 95 form is here in this post:

I always suggest getting a lawyer to handle these FTCA cases but if any vet contracts HIV or Hepatitis-and it came from the dental clinic - they could probably sure succeed in this type of FTCA case without a lawyer.The VA has already admitted they were negligent.

There is Section 1151 and FTCA info here but I hope none of the St Louis Dental clinic vets have to use it.

I suggest for anyone filing this type of claim to make sure copies of your VA dental records are attached to the claim (or subsequently sent in with a 4138 referring to them).There is a time frame on the potential contaminated equipment so VA will be looking for those dates in the St Louis dental records.

Section 1151 claims- no time limit

FTCA claims- there is a 2 year Statute of Limits.

[Commander Bob]

I received a phone call yesterday from Congressman Carnahan regarding the email I sent him, quoted below. He was very kind to me and angry at the VA, we went over the letter. I explained to him that the dental clinic moved and my concerns over the time line of events...

Thank you Tbird, you are a courageous and dedicated veterans advocate. I'm sure it was not easy for you to go through the gauntlet for the vet. I salute you.

I hope this incident will produce a full hearing, especially since the VA spokesperson, Katie Roberts, said ..."

“V.A. is in the process of standardizing the standard operating procedures for the cleaning of all reusable medical equipment across the country.” ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/us/01vets.html?_r=2 ...

All too often the VA, as well as most bureaucracies, attempt to cover up their mistakes with statements like, "this was just a one time event", or "a one location incident". "Just a fall through the cracks"..etc.

We know the VA system is a standardized, country wide operation. I wonder how we can find our if our local VAMC was not just doing the same thing St. Louis did. Are we suppose to believe that this is just a one place, short time incident??? I have my doubts...

Edited July 8, 2010 by Commander Bob

[john999]

Is this fubar confined only to St. Louis or are other VAMC's under the stink eye? I am going to the VA dentist next week in Tampa. If any vets get HIV due to this someone should go to prison.

[Tbird]

Saturday July 10, 2010 10:45 AM Notified via Phone from VA that my first blood tests came back negative, thank you Jesus. My second test is this Wednesday I will keep you posted on those results.