What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Hospital in Las Vegas but originally started at a hospital in Arizona... please read on...
I will TRY to make this as short as possible but enough details to get an answer.
I'm inquiring for my mother basically as it was her brother. LONG LONG story and medical history short... he had been in and out of hosptials in Arizona (Bullhead City and Fort Mohave) for constant various issues - stomach pains, skin breakouts, sodium issues, bowel problems, etc. You name it he probably experienced it at one time or another. One day it got so bad he landed back in the hosptial in Arizona and they finally said there was no way they could treat him (he was just released days prior) and transferred him to Las Vegas. After tons and TONS of tests they come up with that there is probably pancreotic cancer (however you spell it). They tried everything to get a biopsy but due to shrapnol in his head they couldn't do an MRI and the other tests weren't successful. They were considering doing an 8 hour operation of such high risk to just get a piece to see what it was and then the night before he had a heartattack and ended up in surgery for a 5-bipass surgery on his heart. He survived that, barely. We're talking weeks in the hospital. The VA is saying they don't want to pay anymore because there doesn't seem to be anything to be done. The doctor there said he knows he's not healthy enough but the VA says if he can walk he can leave. Which finally after a week in ICU and such he finally was able to walk to the bathroom so they made his daughter make other arrangments. He went into a skilled nursing facility or something like that. He lived about 2 or 3 weeks more and died a horrible painful death.
My mother retrieved his medical records from the hosptials prior to all this and every single scan/test/report stated reference to "a mass" but no one EVER mentioned this to anyone... we're talking years worth of these reports and it wasn't until he landed in vegas did we even know of such a problem. Had we known maybe it could've been prevented. The death certiifcate states his death was from pancreotic cancer even though it was never fully proven. Someone somewhere dropped a ball.... shouldn't someone pay for this error???? Can we pursue it? Should we? How????? Thanks.
I will TRY to make this as short as possible but enough details to get an answer.
I'm inquiring for my mother basically as it was her brother. LONG LONG story and medical history short... he had been in and out of hosptials in Arizona (Bullhead City and Fort Mohave) for constant various issues - stomach pains, skin breakouts, sodium issues, bowel problems, etc. You name it he probably experienced it at one time or another. One day it got so bad he landed back in the hosptial in Arizona and they finally said there was no way they could treat him (he was just released days prior) and transferred him to Las Vegas. After tons and TONS of tests they come up with that there is probably pancreotic cancer (however you spell it). They tried everything to get a biopsy but due to shrapnol in his head they couldn't do an MRI and the other tests weren't successful. They were considering doing an 8 hour operation of such high risk to just get a piece to see what it was and then the night before he had a heartattack and ended up in surgery for a 5-bipass surgery on his heart. He survived that, barely. We're talking weeks in the hospital. The VA is saying they don't want to pay anymore because there doesn't seem to be anything to be done. The doctor there said he knows he's not healthy enough but the VA says if he can walk he can leave. Which finally after a week in ICU and such he finally was able to walk to the bathroom so they made his daughter make other arrangments. He went into a skilled nursing facility or something like that. He lived about 2 or 3 weeks more and died a horrible painful death.
My mother retrieved his medical records from the hosptials prior to all this and every single scan/test/report stated reference to "a mass" but no one EVER mentioned this to anyone... we're talking years worth of these reports and it wasn't until he landed in vegas did we even know of such a problem. Had we known maybe it could've been prevented. The death certiifcate states his death was from pancreotic cancer even though it was never fully proven. Someone somewhere dropped a ball.... shouldn't someone pay for this error???? Can we pursue it? Should we? How????? Thanks.