Military Medical Mistake Disfigures Local Airman
CBS 11/TXA 21, July 17, 2009
http://cbs11tv.com/local/medical.mistake.military.2.1091010.html
Airman Loses Legs
in Botched Gallbladder Surgery, Future of Career Uncertain
A Texas Airman stationed at an Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. has lost both legs after surgeons reportedly
botched a routine surgery to remove his gallbladder.
Monday,
July 20, 2009
Tashya and Paul Lucas lost their
5 month old baby Hans Ernst Lucas.
Go to
Erniesfootprints.com for their story.
Sgt.
Carmelo Rodriguez
CBS Evening News, January 30, 2008
Each year several
military families inquire about medical malpractice against the federal government. But a 1950's law prevents them from the
same justice offered to civilians. Byron Pitts reports.
Hi, my name is Linda, and my son Jeremy died in June of 2006 while serving in
South Korea. He had a bad cold, after returning from field maneuvers of 30 days. He went to a doctor on base, and
they sent him to the military medical hospital in Youngson, Korea, where he was admitted for pneumonia. A nurse told him
the next day, that he could go back to base. 3 officers saw him, and said he was in bad shape, as they helped him figure
out a bus route back to base on a Friday. He rode a public bus for 2 hours. When his sergeant saw him returning, he told
him he looked bad, and to go to bed for the weekend. On Monday, when he didn't show for muster, they went looking
for him. They found him in bed, and his room smelled bad, where he couldn't even get the bathroom, to throw up. They
life-flighted him back to the hospital, as he had developed endocarditis.
When they called us, he had been life-flighted to Samsong medical hospital and was undergoing a heart valve
replacement, as the bacteria had "grown" on his valve, and his heart had stopped 6 times. They never gave him
an antibiotic while he was in the hospital; they gave him aspirin and ibuprofen. We got to South Korea after a 14 hour
flight, after they had told me they didn't know if he was going to live through the surgery. When I, my older son
and my daughter got to the hospital, Jeremy was in a coma. His kidneys had shut down, due to the mass infection he had.
He was on life support the first time I saw him, in the hospital. He was in a coma for 2 1/2 weeks, before his body
started to react to the medicine. He actual had giant black spots on his skin, where this "mold" was coming out
of his body. They had more needles in him, then I had ever seen in one body. They hit a nerve in his ankle, so he had
permanent nerve damage in his foot. He was being fed through tubes, was on oxygen, and a machine that breathed for him.
I stayed with him for a month, in Youngson, South Korea, alone,
as the Army sent my other 2 children home. We got to Korea on Jeremy's 22 birthday, Oct 5th, and the army sent Jeremy
and I by plane, to Hawaii, on Nov 16th. I was with him in Hawaii, where he continuously passed out on me, when going to
doctor visits. They took a sonogram of his heart after we got to Hawaii, which showed his heart valve wasn't working
correctly. 40% of the blood going through was back-washed back into the chamber it came out of. I was taking care of him
in the Fisher house, having to give him shots in his stomach area of blood thinners, so his level would come up. Then
the Army said it was taking too long, so he was ordered to a med-hold unit (the filthiest building I have ever seen, one
example was mold growing in the only drinking fountain they had for these soldiers). Then they told me my orders were
up, I had to go home. I threw a fit, but they would not change it. 6 months later, while still waiting for a captain to
complete his discharge, he died while walking up a steep hill to work at a Military Gym by himself, as he was "filling
in" for some soldiers on Father's Day so they could be with their families. I contacted 6 lawyers, but because
of the Feres doctrine, I couldn't do anything about this outright medical neglect. The Army wouldn't help him
get to the gym, knowing full well of his condition and valve replacement. They would laugh at me, when I tried, while back
in Ohio to call there and want to talk to someone who could help me. I should have "kidnapped" my own son,
and brought him back, where there were doctors who knew what they were doing. And yes, so many soldiers involved in his
care, were promoted. I could not believe it. And our military said they were promoted honorably. It made me sick!
I am sorry this is so long, but I have lived with this for
2 years now, and it hurts so bad that I had to leave him to those butchers. I should have never been lied to, and made
to believe I had to leave. I was the only one taking real care of him, no one else cared. But the Army scared me, yelling
as they do, to get their point accepted. And they wonder why I am still upset, when I have all the documented proof of
what they did.
Linda