Home Page >>
Feature Articles
>> More Veterans Come Forward Reporting Med..
More Veterans Come Forward Reporting Medical Malpractice
Dallas, TX: Veterans, people who have willingly put their lives on the line to protect other people, are coming forward to complain about conditions in Veterans Affairs medical centers that were supposedly set up to help them. They are reporting rude staff, negligence, unsanitary conditions, unreasonably long wait times, and medical malpractice. In some cases, horrible treatment by medical staff has resulted in death, leaving family members behind to ask how a system created to help veterans could fail them so miserably.
 A recent investigation by CBS News 11 showed that some of the patients at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Dallas were victims of neglect, malpractice, and incompetence. The report says that veterans endure a long wait just to get into the hospital initially and are then subjected to "an uncaring and unresponsive staff unwilling to provide even the most basic care."
According the article, a Vietnam veteran waited eight years to get his VA card just to get in the hospital. He went to the hospital with back pain but was sent home and given morphine patches and Hydrocodone. The veteran was admitted to hospital after pain moved down to his hip and leg, but it still took a month to receive an x-ray, despite a myeloma survey that showed "aggressive bone deterioration" in his leg. The veteran's leg broke when he sat on a shower chair.
The article also shares the story of another Vietnam veteran who went to the Dallas VA hospital because of throat pain. Despite having doctors tell him they do not know what was wrong a student doctor told the veteran that he has terminal cancer. The veteran says that doctors knew that he had cancer that had spread for two and a half weeks before they told him. He also reports a staff that does not properly care for their patients; his sister has had to bathe him and change his linens.
Yet another veteran reported having to wait seven hours for pain medication and having the dressing on his wound changed only twice in eight days after his surgery. He says he complained about a swollen leg and being unable to move it, but the leg was not treated until later, after an examination showed that he had a blood clot.
The hospital chief of staff says that the hospital has undergone a 100 percent change in leadership that has improved things lately. However, based on the complaints of the veterans, there are still more changes needed.
Meanwhile, in the wake of reports of dreadful conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center, the VA has ordered its 1,400 hospitals and clinics to give a report outlining the quality of their facilities. The order was given last month and gave facilities only a couple of weeks to respond.
One man is fighting against the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs after his wife died of cancer seven years following a misdiagnosis by Army doctors. The man says that Army doctors told his wife in 1998 that a lump in her breast was just a cyst; however, in 2002, after being diagnosed with cancer, his wife requested her 1998 records from the Army hospital. Those records included a report from a radiologist that said the lump in her breast was a "ropy mass that should be removed." Despite receiving that report, the doctors did nothing about the lump. After she was properly diagnosed she had a mastectomy but the cancer spread. She died in 2005.
The treatment that many veterans are subjected to, including malpractice, misdiagnoses, squalid hospital conditions, and apathetic hospital staff is unconscionable. If you or a family member has been a victim of malpractice at a Veterans Affairs medical center, contact a lawyer to discuss your options.
Veteran Medical Malpractice Legal Help If you are a veteran and have suffered injuries or negligence at a VA hospital, please contact a [Veteran Medical Malpractice] lawyer who will evaluate your claim at no charge.
|
Search 10,000 recent cases and settlements
Lawsuits:
Services:
|
RSS
Del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Facebook