Hep C From Vamc Laziness

[Bigred122]

I hope I'm doing this right. back in 1997 I had a colonoscopy done at Boise VA Medical center. Two days later I had to go to ER due to excessive bleeding. I was losing approxiamately 1 cup per hour.Surgeon wanted to leave early that day (11 am) and discounted how much I was bleeding out.He ordered an IV be installed, but failed to order any fluids for the IV. If either of these would have been done, I wouldn't have needed 4 units of blood the next day. Eight months later, I was notified by State health dept. (not VA) that I had tested positive for Hep C. I was told at that time period that I had no recourse for any compensation.Last summer, I noticed that the Vets from Florida who contracted Hep C from colonoscopies had received free medical, 100% disability and were being determined individually if more disability would be warranted. I had the unusual P&C physical last month and haven't received any red flags to date.Part of me expects floor to drop out from beneath me by past experiences with VA. Then part of me says that it is a new VA and things are different.I am glad this new generation of Vets are being treated differently than what us VN vets dealt with. Which side of me is more correct? I did a search before I got courage to write this.Thank you in advance for any and all advice!! Mike

[Bigred122]

Looks like the thread got reshuffled.lol DeltaJ,I'm almost positive my getting Hep C was from transfusion of blood from surgery. We had a few that got hurt by airgun(airgun slips and causes cut by spray), but my shots only resulted in was sore muscles. The equipment was never found to be a problem like the Florida Vets was.I was a lone case much to my dismay. If it would have been a group of us less easy for VA to ignore. They've tried to connect me to IV drug users and risky sex but I'm too old fashion to fall into either category. I have spent hours tracking down anything and everything connected with the things in my claim.Only thing I discovered was that Boise VA during the time period was getting some of their blood from Prison Inmates.Idaho is a small state in regards to population so I can see they had to use all means right or wrong.Records from Red Cross say that between 10-20% of the blood supply from prisons was infected. I'm sure thats why they stopped usingt them around that time period. I'm hoping to get serial numbers on the blood units to trace them back to see if donors were later found to be a source of infected blood. Hope to have info by next week.Ok I think I have answered your questions, if not the answers are in the thread somewhere.lol Never seen a thread get scrambled before. Did you folks have an earthquake? lol Mike

[Bigred122]

Looks like the thread got reshuffled.lol DeltaJ,I'm almost positive my getting Hep C was from transfusion of blood from surgery. We had a few that got hurt by airgun(airgun slips and causes cut by spray), but my shots only resulted in was sore muscles. The equipment was never found to be a problem like the Florida Vets was.I was a lone case much to my dismay. If it would have been a group of us less easy for VA to ignore. They've tried to connect me to IV drug users and risky sex but I'm too old fashion to fall into either category. I have spent hours tracking down anything and everything connected with the things in my claim.Only thing I discovered was that Boise VA during the time period was getting some of their blood from Prison Inmates.Idaho is a small state in regards to population so I can see they had to use all means right or wrong.Records from Red Cross say that between 10-20% of the blood supply from prisons was infected. I'm sure thats why they stopped usingt them around that time period. I'm hoping to get serial numbers on the blood units to trace them back to see if donors were later found to be a source of infected blood. Hope to have info by next week.Ok I think I have answered your questions, if not the answers are in the thread somewhere.lol Never seen a thread get scrambled before. Did you folks have an earthquake? lol Mike

http://gulfwarvets.com/greely.htm Here is a link for Agent Orange at Fort Greely, Alaska. I use to do alot of fishing in the area when I was in High School in 1966-1967. Buddy and me use to ride our motorcycles there and stay about a week fishing and camping. Mike

[Berta]

This is getting off base here- Bigred-the FTCA form here contains all FTCA and Section 1151 info-and I even put a template there recently for a Section 1151 claim.

"Berta, I think that V.A. has a regulation in 38 CFR that evidence received by Social Security in support of a claim under Title II (death benefits) is presumed received by V.A. on the same date. I have often wondered if that regulation may have helped your V.A. appeals on your dead husband's record."

Delta I doubt that it helped my past DMII death claim at all. I only have a CUE claim on appeal. And an open Nehmer AO IHD claim.

I was awarded DIC for direct SC death last year.Misdiagnosed SC AO diabetes that caused my husband's death- it trumped the 1151/FTCA award.

Bigred has many issues here -possible 1151 issues and possible AO claim-and needs to prove his unit in Korea was exposed to AO.

This is the Korean War Project cite and it is Excellent and could provide info on the 122nd Signal Battalion:

http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/dmz/agent_orange_registry.htm

Edited February 11, 2011 by Berta

[Bigred122]

First let me Thank each and every one of you for your help and understanding. Because of you I went ahead and ordered anything to do with my colonoscopy surgery and I received that info today. The serial number of one of the units transfused was in that paperwork and I have already given the number to red cross to be researched. The surgeon had put in my records a statement that is abit different than other records show. I'm going to have to get a independant source to translate some of the chicken scratch for me. Most of the information seems to be there. So if they cya, they didn't do a very tidy job of it. Also included was my C&P exam notes. That was a surprise bonus to me. Even tho one could tell that he was definitely leaning toward the VAs direction, he was honest enough to say he was not qualified enough to make a decision whether VA was responsible for my Hep C. He suggested either an expert or a judicial judgement be made. Found some non truths such as my Diabetes attack was treated in a Civilian hospital and not the VAMC as stated in the records.(maybe reason primary dr was retired early). If not for you folks and this site, I might have waited for claim determination before requesting files and have given them the time to cover up completely. Red cross says they will get me an answer no later than Monday. Hopefully donor later tested positive for hep C and that will make my case a slam dunk in my favor. If red cross covers up, I guess it will be a draw on that subject. Since statue of limitations have long passed, I'm hoping Red Cross will have no reason to hide info no matter what. Thanks again for being here FOR US!! Mike

[Bigred122]

After spending the morning going thru all the paperwork concerning the botched surgery, I am amazed how little they did to cover their tracks. The Drs post surgery report is not even close to the actual events as reported by ER nurses, ER Drs and many others reports. If I didn't know better I would say that it was about two different patients. I have known for years that his arrogance would be his downfall. He calls blood loss as minmal and reports show over 2 liters of blood loss recorded. Any many more times nurse just shook head and dumped blood without recording and a few times in middle of night when I was so weak that I didn't even save it for them.Hopefully monday Red Cross will confirm my suspensions and donor later tested positive for hep C. And I am hoping that the VA never checked to see if it was positive or not. I was surprised how easy it was to get info. Just gave them name and my phone number and explained to person on the phone why I wanted info.They were very cooperative.If it comes back negative, I won't have a clue how I contracted it.Unless it wasn't cleaned properly the prior use.But that would be hard to prove. So keep your fingers crossed for me and if you believe in prayers, I'll accept any and all of those also. Whether my claim gets approved or not, Thank You everyone here for your help and support on my Quest. Mike

[Bigred122]

Just an update. Thought I would have had an answer from Red Cross today tracing one of unit serial numbers.The people who couldn't help me were very helpful and the ones who had the answers stone walled me.lol The helpful ones computers didn't go back far enough and the ones who had access to the records wouldn't even try. They would just say VA had to request it. Guess it's back to wait and see what the VA tells me. To be continued!! Mike