$725,000 Malpractice Award Against Arkansas Va Surgeon

[Berta]

"A U.S. District Court judge in Little Rock recently found that a surgeon at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Little Rock had botched a surgery and awarded the 75-year-old patient $725,000.

Walter Paul Hoover of Webb City, Missouri, sued the U.S. government in 2011 after a surgery in 2009 “caused complete paralysis of his quadriceps,” Judge James Moody Jr. wrote in his order on Sept. 18."

Full Story at http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/101305/judge-awards-725k-turns-screw-on-va-in-malpractice-lawsuit

[Notorious Kelly]

I don't get how the offending doctor wasn't named in the lawsuit but hopefully his Florida patients will search his name on this.

[Berta]

I wonder if the VA Office of Legal/Medical and the OGC, and VISN reported this case to the National Practitioners Data Bank.

Probably not because only VA settled FTCA Cash cases are supposed to be reported.

Still this is VA malpractice ,and there is a paper VA trail on this.

The NPDB situation is one of the secret lists I am on and I have told IG, HVAC,and the FBI (and tipped off the Sec a few days ago via email)how the VA pulls that crap, to keep doctors from getting disciplined at all..by failing to report all doctors who caused FTCA settlements, .so they can continue to malpractice on other vets.

I am sure this doctor will be in the state data bases of malpracticing doctors, eventually but he probably can try to appeal the verdict.

[Berta]

Oh, here they are:

"Drs. Jeffrey Oppenheimer and Dennis McDonnell at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock"

[Stretch]

Crap the McClellen hospital was the same I had my surgery in for stent in Little Rock AR.. Just like the VA to move him around rather than fire him.

Oppenheimer, who is now practicing in Florida, declined to comment

Thanks Berta.

[Berta]

Mike, VA doctors dont even have to have malpractice insurance because the VA can cover their asses when they screw up.

And As I have mentioned before here, the VA will go as low as they can go to try to get out of malpractice issues...sometimes.....

I did not have a lawyer or even an IMO when I FTCAed/1151 them.

The case I files for a friend, mere months after I filed my FTCA, didnt have a lawyer or IMO.

In my case I had ample evidence of malpractice.

But in my friend's case, he mentioned after a vist just as he was leaving that the "the doctor who did the surgery (cancer) said they should have caught this at BAth ( meaning Bath VAMC"

I said Say what and dragged him back in and typed out a very short claim for him, stating this was a 1151, 38USC claim because "my VA medical records will reveal that I had been malpracticed on at the Bath VAMC"

Same VAMC that killed my husband.

The scuttlebutt at the local VAMC (they both worked in the same VA department) was that maybe VA was going to kill all of the PTSD vets who worked there.

My case took 3 years. His award took about 5 months. 100% P & T and SMC under 1151.

BUT , I am not a usual claimant....I think all other claimants MUST have a lawyer and an IMO.

Unless they have a legal background and are willing to get a medical background too.

I liked dealing with no middleman myself and dealt directly with the RC first here in NY and then with the OGC. These top gun VA lawyers know 38 in and out and understand evidence very well.

Of course we did a lot of bickering and arguing but I knew I would succeed.

Not everyone can take them on as well as the top gun med team at VA, in DC.

If I had a lawyer my claim might have gone faster and saved me much more time.

.

Many vets dont realize their VA health care has been piss poor.

Or even if they know it, they do nothing about it.

And by doing nothing that means more vets will get the same piss poor medical care.

BTW on this large award...... state caps can control OGC settlement amounts.

A Fed district court however can award whatever they feel is true 'compensation'.

Edited October 18, 2014 by Berta