Posted on 07/27/2009 12:34:07 PM PDT by Dubya
An Arlington airman whose legs were amputated after a gallbladder surgery went terribly wrong lacks the same basic legal right to sue his surgeon that state and federal prisoners enjoy, a New York congressman says.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Turley calls the Feres Doctrine "perhaps the most insidious and infamous legal doctrine still on the books."
"It has done untold harm to literally tens of thousands of military families in its history," he said in an interview.
Turley said part of the 1950 Supreme Court case involved a military doctor who left a 30-inch towel in the stomach of the patient. "The towel actually read property of the U.S. Army on it," he said.
In another case, a sailor who went into surgery to have a cyst removed came out a quadriplegic, Turley said. On his blog, Turley lists several other "examples from the military malpractice-free-zone":
Lt. Cmdr. Walter Hardin spent 11 months with red lesions from his legs to his torso that a doctor classified as eczema. The condition was correctly diagnosed as cancer shortly before he died.
Sailor Dawn Lambert had to have a fallopian tube removed, but military surgeons left five sponges in her abdomen. Complications forced a second surgery that would remove her other fallopian tube and left her infertile. She was given $66 monthly in disability pay.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Dean Patrick Witt had appendicitis but was repeatedly misdiagnosed and sent home with some antibiotics. When he finally collapsed at home, he was rushed into surgery. He came out brain-dead.
Is this because it’s tragic a doctor screwed up or because Trial Lawyers are being deprived of their fees?
That’s disgusting. Government health care at its less ugly side.
It IS disgusting. As I’ve said before.....if government health care cannot even take care of our heroes....how in the hell is it going to take care of us?
Anything “free” comes with no guarantee.
LEGS amputated after gall-baldder surgery?
...and here I’ve been going around my whole life thinking my gall-bladder was somewhere in my gut.
Sounds like some kind of sepsis. Is there a doctor in the house?
The wife, OTOH, may sue the living crud out of the USAF.
I suspect she is fending off competing lawyers as I write this.
I suspect the surgeon was working up for some kind of board certification - a common problem.
A good side effect would for the ‘doctor’ to be
drummed out out of the AF
lose his medical license
Had a run-in with a bad doc back in the day as an AD Air Force puke. The ‘Doc’ wound up as a real estate salesman in Moses Lake, WA. No pay or pension.
Having served in the military, I know a couple of other horror stories that happened to people we knew. These things happen all the time.
Welcome to Obamacare.
Among them are veterans who have tested positive for HIV and hepatitis and others who suffered emotional distress after the VA provided them with initial positive blood tests for infections that turned out to be wrong.
The doctor “nicked” his aorta which lost blood flow to his legs.
Yes, but these are young men and women who have volunteered their lives. And considering what they are being paid for it, they are giving it free of cost to the country.
It isn’t easy to sue the government.
They nearly killed my wife in similiar cases. Sheer incompetence and disregard for pain and suffering. One wanted to put her on a flight to hawaii KNOWING she would die before arriving.
I filed an IG complaintn managed to get a letter of reprimand for one of them. Then her records ‘disappeared’ending any further discussion.
My wife didn’t tell me all of this until we were out of country. Otherwise the quack woulda ended up hamstrung
I guess it depends on if it was your life that was runned or not.
Unless things have changed since I was in the Army Medical Corp 30 some years ago, a doctor did not have to have a medical license to practice in the military or VA.
I was joking...
How about that the serviceman will for the rest of his life be slammed from pillar to post trying to get even adequate care in the sham we call the VA. This is being treated as fundamentally no different than a war injury, except he won’t even have a purple heart to show for it.
If Obamacare does pass, and the same rule is put in force for civilians, then it looks like the trial lawyers will be out of luck. Do they realize this?
That changed in 1987. All AD and civil service military docs except those in a training program must have an active, valid license in one of the US states. I was on AD when it took place and there were a fair number of people who had to retake the USMLE in order to get a license.
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