C-File Not Complete

[63SIERRA]

I requested a copy of my c-file several months after rating for kidney removal due to kidney cancer . there was nothing in my c-file at all abt my kidney surgery. why would this be ? the files were in my med recs at the local vamc, which I have copies of.

[Berta]

Sierra said:

“look at the big picture, how did it progress from a 5 centimeter cysts that they evidenty thought was cancer free, to a 7 mm,x 6mmx 5 mm cancerous growth, that also consumed my adrenal gland, and some of my adrenal vein , if they were tracking it.? Im not buying it. “

Me either.

You are right about 'looking at the big picture'.

“And the fact that they never told me abt this large cyst, that may have been cancerous at the time, because they never biopsyed it, makes me even more suspect that someone dropped the ball.”

The link to the article below states:

“Magnetic resonance imaging is especially useful for characterizing the inside of a cyst that is indeterminate after ultrasound and CT. Serial MRI examinations at three, six and 12 months are warranted in some patients.”

Did the VA give you an MRI (different from a CT or ultrasound)

I had to threaten the VA to give my husband a CT scan in 1992.

The doctor had the audacity to tell me their CT scan was broke and they couldnt do a CT scan on him.When I rattled off a phone number to her, a few times ,as I started to get some change out of my purse, she said 'that phone number means nothing to me',I replied, 'it will mean something to this VAMC by the end of the day because , it is the phone number of Congressman Houghton and I am going to the pay phone in the VAMC lobby to tell him about this broken CT scan.'

I was suddenly escorted into a private room and asked (begged) to wait there for a few minutes.

10 minutes later the doc returned and said the CT had been miraculously fixed.

The results were interpreted by a different VAMC's Neuro. She ,his local VAMC doc ,got the results all ass backwards and told my husband he needed brain surgery and was being sent immediately to Syracuse. I asked the nurse's desk to get that Neuro back on the phone.I told him I was familiar with neuro terms and he read the scan to me and I went right into my husband's room and told him there would be no surgery, because his 3 weeks of inability to see, walk, talk well, swallow, etc etc ,diagnosed as labyrhintitis, was in fact from a major cerebral vascular stroke.

The MRI,once he got to Syracuse ,was far more detailed that the CT scan results.It revealed subsequent brain damage from TIAs that VA had attributed to a hole in his eardrum from an explosion in Vietnam.The doc has asked if he had been in any explosions.But his hearing was perfect.

A real audiologist determined there was no hole in his ear drum.

You need,in my opinion ,to contact a Real doctor ,such as a Neuphrologist, to go over your medical records carefully to see if the VA caused you additional disability by their failure to follow proper procedures in assessing and treating the cyst.

“I was under thier frequent care, They found something, didnt inform me, did nothing abt it, and I lost a kidney , adrenal gland, and more because of it, thats the meat and potatoes of the whole thing.

It doesnt sit well with me, and im going to follow up on it thouroughly. If they neglected to take the correct actions, they will pay.

As ive grown older ive learned to trust my instincts and gut feelings., and I just feel like ive been wronged.”

Are you saying the kidney was removed, due to cancer, before they discovered the renal cyst was cancerous?

Your medical records could reveal that the cyst was cancerous and metastasized,meaning it was the cause of the entire kidney removal and adrenal gland removal ,because it had spread from the cyst.

This article makes to point Free Spirit made....many adults have renal cysts that never become problematic but they should be monitored:

“Many recommend that all Bosniak category III lesions undergo surgical removal and evaluation, as 40 percent to 50 percent will be cancer. With this approach, there is still a significant number of unnecessary surgeries. Some recommend close follow-up with magnetic resonance imaging to avoid this. Magnetic resonance imaging is especially useful for characterizing the inside of a cyst that is indeterminate after ultrasound and CT. Serial MRI examinations at three, six and 12 months are warranted in some patients.”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/expert.q.a/01/06/kidney.cysts.brawley/

Sierra can you tell me exactly what SCs you have now for the 60% rating you have and the diagnostic codes the VA used?

“As ive grown older ive learned to trust my instincts and gut feelings., and I just feel like ive been wronged.”

That is why my husband filed a Section 1151.He kept saying he felt they were going to kill him.

I had to reopen his 1151 after he died, and get his entire med recs.I filed FTCA too ,as soon as I saw the initial ER certificate he had, right on top of the med rec stack , after his VA employee physical.

They did kill him and they are still paying for it.

We have a wealth of 1151 and FTCA info in our FTCA forum here.

I hate to suggest getting IMOs because I know they can be costly.

However an 1151 IMO will either reveal VA malpractice and be probative evidence, or they will give the veteran peace of mind ,knowing no malpractice occurred.

Something stinks here. It sounds to me like the renal cyst was cancerous and spread into the entire kidney and adrenal glands.Otherwise the kidney was cancerous ,and not detected in time, and spread into the cyst and adrenal glands.

I am not a doctor but I know for sure that malpractice has a paper trail.

And I even proved a cover up of that paper trail occurred when the VA realized they had really messed up my husband.

The VA saves lives every day. Their malpractice stats are probably no worse than those of private hospitals.

But it happens, to the physical detriment and even to the point of causing death ,to some veterans.

MRIs, CT scans, and Ultrasound are all different medical assessment techniques. You will need to get the results of any of these tests the VA did.

There are excellent medical dictionaries and medical acronym lists on the net these days and can help greatly when understanding these types of test results.

Everything I know about VA malpractice claims is here at hadit.I think I also prepared and posted a template for 1151 IMOs.

If not ,I will

"If they neglected to take the correct actions"...that is the very essense of medical negligence and malpractice.

If the VA failed to take adequate steps to diagnose and treat a condition, steps that the 'standard and usual' medical community would take (meaning non VA health care providers.) and they caused additional resulting and ratable disability or death directly due to their "omissions" of proper medical steps , they have committed malpractice.

[Berta]

Here is a link to the most recent Bosniak classification guide for renal cysts and the need for monitoring some types of them carefully.

http://www.radiologyassistant.nl/en/p44d1045b472df/kidney-cystic-masses.html

The photo scans there might even reveal something you find in your own MRI or Ultrasound results.

I used photos from an internet brain autopsy to mark the exact 7 areas of brain damage that my husband had, due to piss poor VA health care referring them (VA)directly to the occurence of these untreated and undiagnosed brain lesions

I was also able to prove with medical evidence (multiple ER vists in his VA med recs )( and other evidence- such as his drivers license) how the VA had documented evidence of symptomatology of transcient brain ischemia, that caused him problems on the VA job (documented) and in VA Voc Rehab (documented) and due to any lack of diagnosis and treatment they turned into a full blown totally disabling stroke.

A proper assessment and follow up that his initial ER certificate revealed (diagnosed with sinus infection but I proved he had an on the job heart attack) that would have prevented the major stroke and also his untimely death.

I wasnt a doctor but spent from early 1995 to mid 1997 collecting mdical evidence to prove my case.

I should have gotten an IMO but never even considered getting one.

As I mentioned her before the fact that I had no lawyer gave me the right to deal with my FTCA case myself.

I had the goods on them and was confident and aggressive in getting a proper resolve.

But that all took me LOTs of time to get up to speed medically enough and legally enough to deal with the VA lawyers in DC.

They are top notch lawyers and they had a top notch medical team to try to defeat me with.

We have the absolute right to pursue these issues ourselves.

After 20 NY lawyers would not take my case, I was glad I was willing to pursue it myself.

But that was before the internet as we know it now. VA malpractice lawyers and IMO docs are a Google away.

I sure dont recommend handling these types of claims yourself.

In my case ,the VARO pulled some crap that no lawyer would have ever put up with and it added time and much stress to me and my case. I was in a daily battle mode for over 2 years.

1151s and FTCA these days require,in my opinion, a strong IMO.

And if you get a strong IMO proving malpractice, and worth a good sized settlement, then a lawyer would be foolish to turn down an FTCA case as long as it falls within the FTCA Statute of Limits.

.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Berta

[63SIERRA]

THANKS BERTA I was hoping u would chime in. I need all the help I can get.

Edited November 11, 2013 by 63SIERRA

[63SIERRA]

I found a lawyer in houston, called whitehead he seems really pro vet, so I might call him next week and see what he thinks. He is board certified to handle va claims according to his website.;

Also ive never had an mri., I ve been begging for one from the va, to verify a back condition and they refuse, claiming I dont meet the criteria.

Edited November 11, 2013 by 63SIERRA

[63SIERRA]

also I had to keep after the doctors after surgery, was it cancer , and they hee and hawed me t. this and that and seemed like they didnt want to tell me. Finally I got one of the doctors who was in the operating room, to tell me, and he seemed like he was making a big confession of sorts, it just seemed odd.

Berta the chain of events was, I had just finished treatment for hepc and my liver was stage 4 out of 5 damaged. they were checking my liver. The same radiological report they wrote the liver report on, they also put the cyst finding of my kidney in. '

verbaitum all it said in the box was this.....

the Liver and gallbladder appear normal. the common bile duct measures 3.7 mm in caliber . there is a 5 mm cyst in the upper pole of the right kidney.

now keep in mind, the adrenal gland sits on top of the upper pole of the right kidney. My cancer was on the upper pole of the right kidney, and my adrenal gland, and part of the renal vein.

sound suspicious dont it. ???

Edited November 11, 2013 by 63SIERRA

[63SIERRA]

Also when I went get my medical records there was a cd disk enclosed. I put it in my computer and it actually opened it, and let me view the images. I dont know what the hell im looking at, but there are plenty. so I may have alot of evidence in those images as well .some are xray. some ultrasound, some ct.

evidently they can tell if its cancer by looking at the images alone, because thats how they determined to operate and that they were pretty sure it was cancer/ they didnt tell me for sure until several weeks later. I guess they sent it to the lab.