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This could happen to you


Berta

Question

This is a very unusual story-I am contacting his attorney because I dont know what kind of settlement he got- maybe he appealed the 1151 denial.

We had a widow here about a year ago, in the same predicament. She was trying to file for wrongful death of her husband but VA said the doctor was not a VA employee, but a private contractor-working for the VA.

When I FTCAed them I made sure that all of the doctors who malpracticed on my husband were definitely VA employees.

Still, Brian was hopeful because he said the new VA attorney handling his tort claim told him that a financial settlement was likely - and that an expert for the VA concluded his primary care physician had failed the standard of care.

"She used these exact words - the VA failed to meet the standard of care and there was a breach - and that there's liability involved and the VA is looking to settle your case," Brian said.

But eight months after he filed the claim, that same VA attorney dropped a bombshell. It turns out that Brian's physician was NOT a VA employee - she's an independent contractor for the VA, and under federal law the VA is not legally responsible for negligence by its contractors.

Why did it take the VA eight months to figure out Brian's physician was a contractor and not a VA employee? The VA won't tell us. The VA and Brian's primary care doctor ignored repeated requests for an interview.”


After months of fighting the VA, Brian did get a settlement with the help of Virginia attorney Glen Sturtevant.”

Shortly after Brian reluctantly agreed to the settlement, he received even more disturbing news from yet another VA medical evaluation performed by an outside, independent physician.

Dr. Arnold Kim wrote in his report that delays in Brian's diagnosis and surgery "allowed for further destruction of the spinal column." Kim refers to Brian's "permanent injury" and the "red flag" missed by healthcare providers at the VA.

He believes the injury to the spinal cord "also led to the veteran's current lumbar IVDS, erectile dysfunction and voiding dysfunction," and that earlier evaluation and treatment "would have likely prevented the majority of the disability from the lumbar spine injury."

Brian traveled to Washington, D.C., in September to meet with lawmakers about his proposed "Tally Bill." It would force the VA to identify independent contractors to patients and require the VA to assume at least some responsibility for medical malpractice by its independent contractors. Congressman Dave Brat of Virginia has agreed to sponsor the bill and plans to introduce it to the House of Representatives in the very near future.

https://abc7news.com/health/va-misdiagnoses-and-delays-nearly-kill-socal-veteran/4451312/


 


 

 

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21 hours ago, Buck52 said:

As for as I know there's no limits  (years) to refile an appeal.

read this link about a Veteran won his  appeal claim  they went back 10 years that netted him  $$500.000.00  not a bad payday.

https://www.stripes.com/vet-s-denied-claim-granted-10-years-later-for-500-000-1.237631

Buck.

it appears they are paying him at the current rate in 2013. If they paid me at today’s current rate for 568 months, it would be $1,784,088.00. That’s the disability wages, and includes nothing I paid out over the last 568 months. It does not include my kids compensation pay or what they lost. That does not consider the dirty dealings by the VA, or any sufferings by me, by them, future problems or early death, or anything else. 

I had a lot of issues. Lots of them. While still on duty developing more and more all the time, and suffering from organism in my blood and lungs, and heart and liver and brain, and skin, and eyes, and everything. My guts, my kidneys, and I suffered. In May in Vietnam, I was cramping with severe abdominal pain and in January 1972 I was still cramping severely with abdominal pain. I had 24 tumors removed in 2014, I think it was, and the FAP TESTS were done to rule out heredity as the cause. None, Zero in my siblings or parents and they were environmentally acquired. 

I dont know what the VA wants to do, but according to past events, they want to intercourse me as long as I breathe. They don’t talk to lay people , only their own caliber of people. I have to send off my NOA, certified. I’ll be back

vrs

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  • HadIt.com Elder

victor if you won your case today depending on what date they went back to  they pay what the pay was for each year up to date.

As I understand it...the pay rate is just what the rate was at that time per year.

 

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Yes but you might want to get James Cripp Advice as for as going to the media? that could hinder your claim...unless its your only alliterative.OR it could make matters worse? jmo..I am not sure?

 

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Victor I am sure you have a lot of issues and I don't blame you one bit for being bitter and frustrated  but dealing with the VA you may be ask to settle for something that is not fair.

  if the VA Reopens these claims and conditions   they will get out of paying  a lot of it..unless you have a super sharp Law Dog that will fight tooth and nail...you may want to think about a settlement offer if they present you one?  but VA is not in the business to make offers  this is just my opinion.

if you have a mind set'' all or nothing''?  you may want to think long and hard if what they offer  if they do offer?

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I was discharged illegally from the USMC and had a most unusual disability.  The Navy Times did a story on me as their cover story.  It helped get some people involved but not much more than the people already helping me.  I was featured in a story in the Los Angles Times and on a segment on disabled veterans on a TV news report.  The total of real help received was nil from those stories.

Edited by vetquest
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The VA certainly did have my Service Treatment Records, but let me believe they were still lost. We did file for those records(me & VFW) and they were suppose to come to me. Four or five months after I was denied I move away because my employer had called me back to work. The records never came and the DA 3349 profile from the Vietnam Medical Board Proceedings was the only record I had. 

The VA said I submitted no records in support of my 1983 claim and remember the Army told me my records were Lost in 1971 intransit from Vietnam and never changed that fact despite the requests for them, but CLEARLY, the BVA went on record saying the VA used them in 1983 to make its decision. WTF. That’s a WOW factor and clearly “uncovered the Cover-up”. That’s another deception the VA used to keep denying me and dependents of any benefits going back to 1971. That claim had an automatic effective date to the last day I served in Vietnam. I told Rochelle I bet this is going to get ugly before it’s done, over four years ago, because I knew the VA was 100% dishonest with my case. I always thought I was injected as an experimental project and I bet I was right. 

The VA had them come to my house to make sure I didn’t have my own set of records. Lucky for them I didn’t, but they had to make sure anyway. Cover-ups can be tricky. At that time, only skin conditions were admitted as possibly being Agent Orange related. “Chloracne”. I didn’t have a single medical record except DA3349,  but knew I had skin condition disabilities from the Agent Orange Exposure that caused my Chloracne, Eczema, and skin Disease because it was unnaturally itchy, but no other conditions were allowed for compensation by the VA, and I didn’t know what any records said, or if there were any records. They were lost, remember. 

I had complained about chest pains like my heart, migraine headaches, side aches, abdominal pain, bone pain Joint pain, back aches, feeling like I was getting shocked all the time, broke out like in puberty, insomnia, respiratory problems, shortness of breath, nausin, urinating blood six months after Vietnam, eye pain like parasites, and all the other crap they denied for 50 years. 

They don’t want to talk to me so they can talk to someone else. Lawyers will have to get their own fees paid on top of mine. I got screwed, and the VA has been anticipating this since April 20, 1972

Victor R. Sellers

 

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