By David Porter – The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 30, 2010 16:27:56 EDTGARFIELD, N.J. – A federal judge found the Navy 80 percent negligent in the training death of Seaman Freddie Porter Jr. when it awarded $1.25 million to his mother, Cassita Massiah, last December.
As it stands, it won’t be the Navy paying Massiah. Instead, a company found to be 20 percent negligent – the owner of the tugboat that overran Porter’s small Navy vessel more than two years ago – has been ordered to pay the total damages.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. has spawned a legal battle that could alter how the government defends itself in similar lawsuits.
The seeming inequity stems from long-held legal precedent of sovereign immunity that protects the government from lawsuits – in this case, by military personnel injured or killed in the course of service. The government can be sued by a third party – a product manufacturer, for example – to contribute to a damage award, but those suits rarely succeed, according to Daniel Rose, an attorney representing Massiah.
Archive for the ‘VA Reports’ Category
Legal battle continues over training death
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010Man sues Hampton VA doctor over missed stroke symptoms
Monday, May 24th, 2010By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 18, 2010HAMPTON
After the Hampton VA Medical Center denied responsibility, a Chesapeake veteran has sued the emergency-room doctor there who failed to diagnose a stroke that left him permanently disabled.
John Morgan, a Marine veteran, went to the Hampton center Nov. 23, 2008, complaining of slurred speech, unsteady gait and weakness on his left side – what government investigators later described as “classic stroke symptoms.” He was discharged by the physician on duty, Dr. Razaak Eniola.
The next day, he went to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he was found to have suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for six days.
A subsequent investigation by the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found the Hampton center at fault in the case. But when Morgan filed an administrative claim for compensation, the VA denied liability on the grounds that Eniola was a contract doctor, not a VA employee.
Staff error caused hepatitis outbreak
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010By MARY SHEDDEN
TAMPA – The area’s first known group outbreak of hepatitis C was isolated to mistakes made by an employee at a Brandon holistic medical clinic, public health officials say.
Up to eight patients at Wellness Works, 1209 Lakeside Drive, have tested positive for the blood-borne illness, which is most often transmitted by the improper sharing of needles or intravenous medical equipment. Since the Hillsborough County Health Department launched an investigation in July, nearly 130 patients have been tested.
No more patients tested positive since The Tampa Tribune first reported the outbreak in February.
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US inquiry finds problems at Prescott VA hospital
Saturday, May 8th, 2010PHOENIX – A federal agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints has closed its probe of the VA Medical Center in Prescott after concluding that medical errors had occurred and the facility had suffered from understaffing of nurses and housekeepers.
The Office of Special Counsel investigated problems in the hospital’s long-term care and hospice wards reported by a nurse who alleged that she was fired in 2008 because she complained that patients were suffering. The report found no evidence to support an illegal firing.
A full investigation by the Veterans Affairs Office of Medical Inspector – completed in September and released Thursday – concluded that some workers made medication errors, including overusing laxatives and misusing narcotics. More serious allegations of patient abuse could not be substantiated.
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VA Limits Surgeries At Some Hospitals After Deaths
Friday, May 7th, 2010by David Schaper : May 6, 2010
The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a new rating system for its hospitals that at some facilities will limit the types of surgeries doctors can perform.
The changes come after several patients died because of surgical mistakes at one Illinois VA hospital.
VA officials acknowledge that at least nine patients died directly because of surgical mistakes by doctors at the Marion VA Medical Center in southern Illinois in 2006 and 2007. A VA investigation found that poor care at Marion contributed to the deaths of at least 10 other patients, and to the illness and injury of several more.
The investigation found doctors performing surgeries they were not qualified or trained to perform. It found the Marion VA hired one doctor in particular, thought to be responsible for many of the deaths, not knowing he was under investigation for malpractice in Massachusetts.
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