How Can The Va Overlook Coronary Heart Disease

[Pete53]

Its a mystery to me that the VA could say everything is fine after a stress test 7 months ago and after a stress test thursday the Doc is scheduling me for an emergency angioplasty.

I will never again step foot in a VA Medical Center.

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[betrayed]

if I had not gone outside of the VA I would have had a heart attack.

Me to brother. When I failed the stress test I asked my PCM at the VAMC, so I am not gonna fall over with a heart attack, he said no. I went outside the VA for a cardiologist, and like I said earlier three blockages 2 @ 80% and one @ 100%. My doctor said I was a walking time bomb. I still plan to try and get the NP who did my exam fired. She has no business doing heart exams! B)

[Cavman]

Good luck Pete.

Cavman

[Dennis]

Berta,

After reading your response to Pete I was moved by the details of Rod's death and the courage and determination that you have shown since then. I am a strong admirer of yours and the work you do here on hadit.

More to the point, your story hit me like a bucket of ice cold water in the face. I too have peripheral neuropathy and on March 17, 2004 had an angioplasty with stent inserted to open an almost completely closed artery. My cardiologist told me I have had a heart attack but like Rod, I have never felt any of the symptoms. I only went to my doctor because I had become short of breath. After learning what happened to Rod I am more concerned about protecting my family so my wife does not find herself in the same situation you had to face.

Currently, I am sc for peripheral neuropathy (40%) but do not have DM. It is caused by B12 deficiency. I got secondary sc for pernicious anemia (10%). I filed a NOD for the pernicious anemia and just had one of the C&P exams and am waiting for the psych to schedule another one.

I have sleep apnea and the VA provides a CPAP. I have done a lot of research but cannot find much information on PN and heart conditions or PN and sleep apnea. Can you direct me to any information you may be aware of, either on the web or in print?

Thanks for anything you can do.

Dennis

[Berta]

Dennis- it is upsetting but not surprising for me to see what Pete and Jim and Now you yourself have been through with heart disease.

In your case you said you are not a diabetic -if your cardiologist is a VA doctor -have you carefully checked your glucose values on your med records and anything at the HBIAC test-if they ever gave you one?

In the initial IMO I got Rod's PN and peripheral vascular disease were strongly associated to his undiagnosed Diabetes.

It is highly associated with diabetes but there are many other causes too- High tryglycerides and what is called a lipid hypothesis is also associated wth PM and cardiovascular disease.

This is the cholestrol factor that can cause arteries to be clogged with plaque and therefore cause circulation problems that can be deadly.The VA can treat this condition with meds and diet before it causes serious vascular complications.

I use the Merck Manual because the VA does too:

http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/home.jsp

And the American Heart Association provides numerous other links and a wealth of excellent information on heart disease and its relationship to and from other conditions:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jht...ntifier=1200000

I am not a doctor but it appears you have had atherosclerotic involvement to your heart.

This search link has 150 articles regarding PN and heart disease:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...p;dopt=Abstract

PUB Med has direct linkup with MEDLINE- 2 excellent sources for the information you need:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed

I am pretty sure I never joined the site to search- I just use their search button and have supported many claims with abstracts from this site.

Veterans should be pro active in their care- we had too much trust in VA doctors and only after 3 weeks of them misdiagnosing a major stroke is when I began to really question these doctors regarding Rod's care.I had to threaten them to get him a CT scan. I am glad I did.He would have died in the local VAMC in 1992.

But after he was transferred to a more sophiscated VAMC, the head VA cardiologist there told me there was nothing wrong with Rod's heart-

yet his medical records revealed that he had significant heart disease,they were fully aware of this in 1988 and also in 1992 (particularily This doctor) and yet they covered it up because the true cause of his heart disease -and strokes- which was undiagnosed diabetes-presented not only a costly picture to treat-at that point-(his medical care up to them had been minimal and not costly) but

if we had been told the truth in 1992 we could have sued them. It was a situation of a one VAMC covering up 4 years of misdiagnosis by another VAMC.They seemed to realise I knew a lot about brain trauma due to another husband's experience with a tumor and I had some lengthy conversations with the head Neurologist in helping them assess his brain trauma. He thanked me many times for the information I had given him as Rod had an unusual MRI and I took them back to 1988 ER visits,told them his symptoms, and they had his med recs- I didnt -but they saw what I meant.

As it was ,Rod, by 1994 , filed a Section 1151 himself due to inappropriate care for his PTSD supported by evidence (Congressional intervention was needed )and ended his 1151 claim by predicting his own death due to heart disease or having more stokes because -as he stated -they were not even diagnosing and treating his PTSD correctly so they probably were misdiagnosing his other conditions.

He was pretty dramatic in this claim as he was angry over the PTSD care he was getting-

as a VA employee he was sent to the VA employee shrink who didnt have a clue about PTSD,could not medicate him, and only wanted to talk about computers when he got there.Finally the VA did change his doctors and he went to the PTSD inhouse program.He said it seemed to help him a lot with his anger but he was died 3 weeks after coming home from that.

As it was -they got sued anyhow-and I re-opened his Sec 1151 claim after he died and he was right on every charge. I spent hours in medical libraries (even in two of the local VA doctor's library-I had to get permission and they really didnt want me in there) as the internet was not at all what we have today.

A stack of medical books was always next to my bed.

The VA has re-opened a claim I had in 1998 for PTSD causing his HBP to escalate and aggravate his heart disease,thereby causing his death.

A VA expert Cardiologist -men and women -told me there was Nothing wrong with his heart.

It took me months to comprehend his med recs- all handwritten in those days-

An Echo, EKGs , tapes of the results , and finally understanding a critical ER visit where a serious misdiagnosis contributed to his death.

Like I have said-the VA does save thousands of lives and provides in many cases adequate medical care.

We just cannot determine however-what veteran gets that care and which one doesn't.

It just didnt make sense when he collapsed and died. His Sec 1151 was in a rating board with his PTSD claim. I re-opened it and the DAV said I did not have a basis for a claim.

Even with significant brain damage and also 100% PTSD (retro accrued award) my husband was right

and they awarded Section 1151 on all of his charges but it appeared that they still ignored the misdiagnosis of the PTSD.

I told the VA 2 years ago this was a still open claim.

The dopes (VA)sent me a letter saying the misdiagnosed PTSD was part of their numerous misdiagoses.

That statement from the VA supports the CUE claim they have re-opened at the BVA.I copied it and sent it back to them to support one of my other claims.

Misdiagnosed PTSD was one of many medical errors that caused the veteran's death.

Direct Service connection.

This is a long post an I apologise to all of you who have had to put up with my experiences-and Rod's.

Anyone of you could be in the same boat, and get put on ice by a VA medical error.

They almost killed his best friend and co worker at the VA too- another Vietnam vet,by treating his colon cancer as hemmoroids.

A claimant should provide any potential basis at all for direct service connection.

Sec 1151 deaths have no honor-only direct SC death does.

I am claiming SC death not only due to AO diabetes contributing but also to misdiagnosis of PTSD, aggravated by misdiagnosis of CVA and CAD ,lending to HBP (misdiagnosed too -documented in FTCA settlement)

and thereby causing his direct service connected death.

Since this all happened to my husband-the internet has made it MUCH easier for a veteran like Rod, wondering about his medical care, in his lifetime,

to find out if their conditions are being appropriately diagnosed and treated by the VA.Rod was right and his Section 1151 charges were documented and proven-4 years after he died.

The VACO concurred with my layperson's medical assessment of the veteran. I diagnosed his transcient brain ischemia,(this is what had puzzled the Neuro team) and I diagnosed his heart disease and I proved his meds were wrong.

Pretty good- the VA employs "professional' medical doctors at VAMCs and a vet's wife ends up diagnosing the veteran properly (and the veteran had diagnosed himself properly too in his Sec 1151.)

I say trust the VA doctors- but with great caution- study your own conditions fully on the internet and do not hesitate for a second to ask them to explain anything you feel doesn't seem right.

Edited September 25, 2006 by Berta

[pipeman043]

Hello All,

To go along with what others have said, I'll add my 2 cents worth.

Back in Feb of 2000 I went to the local hospital ER with shortness

of breath and chest pain.... they did the blood test and the ekg..and

all that routine.....Sent me home saying that I had indigestion. That

was on a Friday night. The following Monday while out walking I collapsed

in pain and called my wife on the cell and told her to come fetch me.

I went back to the same ER (up here where I live there are limited

health care facilities) and they did the same work up plus did a stress

test with the thalium tracer. Lo and behold found three blockages,

on 90% and two 70% all in the LAD, plus determined that I had had

a heart attack sometime recently... Imagine that....This is the point that

I entered the VA health care system, had no insurance, medical bills

mounting up, perscription costs out of sight, ect...

Just happened to luck out and got a really good NP who kept sending

me for tests. That's when I learned about PTSD and how it had been

plaguing me all my life. Learned that I got CHF and sub-clinical COPD

So far I've had 9 caths and they have placed three stents. One of those

stent caths went bad and they nicked the nerve bundles...that caused

PN which is now in both legs. Just three weeks ago I was told that I

now have demylinating neuropathy and it was suggested that perhaps

the heart meds that the va provided worked against my metabolisum

causing the new problem. The VA neurologist said that the damage

has been done and it's irreversable. I can slow down it's advance by

taking a vitamin but that they best they have to offer.

Point of the story is you can get good or bad care regardless of where

you go. The cardiology dept at the VA here is good but way understaffed.

The outside cardiologist that I go to has a great rapport with the VA,

in fact one of the doc's from that practice serves as a loco tenents

doc at the VA. So all in all I believe that the VA has provided very good

care but everybody doesn't get the same service, alot depends on your

PCP and how much they push the system to deliver.

The RO on the other hand has fought me every step of the way. I have

already given up twice before after getting denied. This time around the

post here have helped be find the motivation to fight harder. To thier credit

they did grant the NSC pension, but that took some battle too.

Sorry this is so long, but just wanted to balance out the perspective

so to speak....Thanks for all you people do!

[Pete53]

My new Heart Doc says the VA has great equipment and nobody who knows how to use it. I will find out thursday but I think that a 90% blockage does not occur in 6 months.