Military Ignorance regarding healthcare?

Question:

Here's the story: My mother went into the USAF when she was 19, and at 23 she was diagnosed with kidney stones. At the time the doctor told her to just let them pass, gave her vicodin and sent her home. She spent 20 years dealing with those kidney stones and the doctor never did anything different. In the year 2000 (she was 42) her kidneys failed completely, and yet again, her military doctors didn't seem to know what they were doing. She went out on her own to study civilian practices and found that if she was cared for properly when she FIRST started getting the stones, then the complete failure would have been prevented. She suffered seven years with this, spending five days a week on dialysis for five hours each of those days. Accompanying her kidney failure came Osteoperosis, calcium deposits, cysts, 40% liver failure, and organ shrinkage among other issues because of so much dialysis. She died this year. I feel this was ignorance on her military doctors part. What do you think?

Answers:
You will be just wasting your money looking for a lawyer with the intent to sue (you really need a expert in this matter not a plain jane lawyer). Her service was voluntary. The military doctor is protected by the US government (so you would essentially be sueing the US governement which is disallowed by Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity which means you need the governments permission to sue them before sueing them).

See this excerpt:
Why can’t active duty personnel sue for medical malpractice?
In 1950 the Supreme Court decided a case called Feres v. United States in which it ruled that active duty personnel injured “incident to service” cannot file claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Receiving treatment at government facilities has been deemed an activity “incident to service”.

I would contact the VA to see if any benefits are applicable to you. I would also look at the addresses I attached and contact that organization about a claim.

Yet again I repeat: YOU CAN NOT SUE THE GOVERNMENT!

Sueing is not the key here. You will have to follow the procedures of the Military Claims Act (because military members don't fall under the Federal Torts Claims Act). Then the offending service will adjudicate the claim administratively.

I am very sorry about the loss of your mother.
I would see an attorney and get some legal advice.
I agree that the military doctors were negligent.

Sounds like the doctors I saw when I was in. I always felt like the doctors and most medical staff except the corpsmen that were in the field with us, were just putting in their time until they could get out and make money. They never demonstrated to me that they cared about anyone.

I don't know if I would leave the blame solely on the military alone.. but that doctor needed more information, or to at LEAST take a little time to look into it a little better when the symptoms didn't get better.

I also agree about seeing a lawyer. at LEAST for mal-practice if not wrongful death (if it was caused by that and is provable)

I'm very sorry for your loss. I do feel like you want to blame the military for all of this, but there is some responsibility on your mother's part. The patient is in charge of their health.

Why did she wait 20 years before getting an opinion from a civilian doctor? I've never heard of anyone ever needing 25 hours of dialysis a week. That seems to be quite an exaggeration. The most I've ever heard of was 20 hours, and I've only known someone personally who needed 15 hours. I'm surprised that with the gravity of her condition that she didn't get a kidney transplant. Surely she would've been at the top of the list, especially after 7 years of dialysis, so there must be a secondary condition (or something else you didn't mention) precluding her from transplantation.

The osteoporosis, calcium deposits, and other things resulted from the kidney failure, not the dialysis. Dialysis does not harm the body, only kidney failure does. Dialysis is a treatment, not the disease itself.

I think there was ignorance on the part of your mother's doctor and a lack of common sense on your mother's part. It is easy to second guess the decisions of others, especially those who you don't care about. I know it will take time, but try to move on. Remember your mother for who she was and not for what happened to her.

Military Ignorance regarding healthcare?

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