Fayetteville misdiagnosis Snafu

[Berta]

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA) - UPDATE:

"The VA Town Hall meeting will be on Sunday, July 9 at 11 a.m., and it will be located at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks,  according to Wanda Shull, the public affairs officer with the VA. 

"The town hall is being held with the goal of ensuring Veterans, their families, and beneficiaries are provided with the most current information; and have their concerns addressed by senior VHSO officials. VHSO will also be joined by representatives from the Veterans Benefits Administration to help answer any related benefits questions Veterans may have," the news release states."

https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/update-va-sets-date-on-town-hall-meeting/1246298773

I hope they are prepared for a crowd.

Ben Krause finally got my email on it- it is at his site today-

I got one Google alert on this on the 18th of June and immediately contacted the law firm- now it is growing all over the net, and on TV and radio in Arkansas and Missouri, and the NY Times.

VA saves lives everyday- but no VA patient should keep their head in the sand if they think something is wrong with their VA health care.

My husband's  1994 1151  claim focused on what he felt was a lack of proper PTSD treatment.The treatment got better whe I raised hell- but he ended his 1151 with the statement that since his PTSD might have been malpracticed on, his stroke definitely was, ( we thought for only 3 weeks but it was over 2 years),and added they might have been misdiagnosing heart disease as well and could cause his death, but   then when Pres Clinton said the VA health care system was the best Gov health care system in the world- Rod turned to me and said 'maybe I should withdraw my 1151 claim'- but I reminded him what would Clinton kow about the real VA.

When he died I had to become the 1151 claimant. He was right-they misdiagnosed 4 conditions, 2 were AOs, and their last award to me under 1151 was in 2015.

The  WH hot line for vets filed a complaint for me- the complaint was why hasn't VA Central Office given out a press release yet on Fayetteville?

Some of those 20,000 vets sure might have moved elsewhere since 2005- and maybe given their RO their forwarding adsdress but maybe not to the Fayetteville VAMC.

The VA allowed this pathologist back on the job after he was in some sort of recovery program, and he was found to be impaired at work again-

VA is liable for his actions. There are only 2 questionable deaths so far, and 7 confirmed misdiagnosed veterans.

 

 

 

 

[Berta]

If you have received that terrible letter from VA advising you that a Fayetteille pathologist might have interpreted your lab work wrong, and caused you to have been misdiagnosed ,  Senator Boozman would like to here from you:

https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/dr-boozman-s-check-up?id=CA7540EE-5A65-40E2-A4B3-E14AEE06E5CD

 

If you have a copy of  your VA medical records, I can give you contact info for a Fayetteville malpractice law firm.

Otherwise you can use this form to get them:

https://www.va.gov/vaforms/medical/pdf/vha-10-5345a-mhv-fill.pdf

 

[Berta]

I told lawyer who had received calls from vets on this , when the first story broke, that this will definitely get worse.

And it did.This past Monday.

"FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — A review of cases of a former pathologist who was found to be impaired have showed 1,119 errors so far, resulting in 11 institutional disclosures and three veterans who have died.

 

The information was disclosed at a town hall meeting at the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville on Monday morning.

“Institutional disclosures” refers to adverse events that occurred during care that resulted in death or serious injury.

“Their deaths could possibly be a result of the diagnosis by this former doctor,” said Dr. Kelvin L. Parks, interim director of the VA Medial Center, referring to former Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks pathologist, Dr. Robert Morris Levy, who was found to be “impaired” on March 22, 2016. The pathologist was immediately removed from clinical care.

Levy was fired in April following a DUI arrest in Oct. 2017 which was ultimately dismissed. Levy denied being impaired while on duty.

Following his firing, officials with the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced an investigation in more than 33,000 of Levy’s cases, which affect about 20,OOO

The case reviews are expected to take until the end of the year."

https://5newsonline.com/2018/09/24/three-veteran-deaths-possibly-result-of-errors-by-pathologist-va-officials-disclose/

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I have two comments on what is stated above:

"resulting in 11 institutional disclosures" and

“Institutional disclosures” refers to adverse events that occurred during care that resulted in death or serious injury."

What that means is that 11 incident reports that VA has (done by some VA employee - nurse, doctor) at time of the incident which might or might not been revealed to the veteran or their family members if the veteran died, or if the veteran could have gotten at that point enough care to sustain their life. Some vets or their survivors, if made award of these incident reports probably think VA will compensate them n the basis of those 11 reports. However, every single case of malpractice here has to be filed for as under Section 1151, and/or FTCA.

The Public Affairs person at these Town Hall Meetings- this was the second one, told me the VA was definitely advising any vet or their survivors who had been malpractced on, of both Section 1151 and/or FTCA. I want to believe that......

Of the 33,000 cases, I also believe that accounts for over 5 thousand deaths that are being or will be investigated.Maybe be more than VA knows so far.

"1,119 errors so far"- Medical errors by one VA pathologist!

I strongly believe that our former Radio show tech, Mike Sasser  aka Stretch, was one of the wrongfully dead veterans and his spouse has filed FTCA already.

This is an OUTRAGE!!!!!!! Director Parks didn't want this to become National News. I called the WH Hot Line and filed a complaint because I dont even think thePresident or Sec Wilkie knew this had occurred.

I dont know what the 1,119 medical errors were-but in any event 1,119 vets either got diagnosed and treated for something they didn't have or are finding out now that they have had a serious condition, that the pathology reports said they didn't have. If you watched the last Town Hall (I posted a link to it here)you can see the anquish and depair in vets who are still alive, but who didnt know yet what their future will be, waiting for VA to give them an accurate diagnosis and treatment.

 

          

 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Berta

[Berta]

A brief search for additional info gave me conflicting news reports that downplayed the bulk of those 1,119 errors and changed the  amount of vet's  medical records they have gone through at this point.

Only the local news outlets are following this up.

I think many of the veterans who VA might tell they were misdiagnosed or, not misdiagnosed at all, should get a second opinion outside of the VA.

Parks was asked again a question by a vet, and  does not have what I feel is a good answer at all....VA knew this pathologist was a mess. Why wasn't he fired sooner?