Government Health Care

August 26, 2009 at 7:06 pm (Conservative, Economics, Health Care, Politics, Veterans)

If you think the government can run an efficient health care system you need to read this:

A military veteran in south Florida is suing the Veterans Administrations, claiming he contracted HIV AIDSduring an endoscopic colonoscopy at a Miami Dept. of Veterans Affairs hospital in May 2008.

According to Military.com, the Army veteran Juan Rivera, 55 years old, claims he contracted HIV from the procedure on or about May 19, 2008. Rivera said he had been tested twice and both times he was positive for the disease.

In December, the VA’s Tennessee Health Care System identified a problem related to the “reprocessing” of endoscopy equipment, which exposed otherwise healthy individuals to cross-contamination. 

The VA says the errors were limited to the three states, but a report by the agency’s Inspector General suggested more widespread problems.

Subsequently, all VA facilities were told to review their processes to ensure that they were in compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions, according to the report. Completed in December and January, these reviews also identified significant reprocessing issues at the Augusta VA Medical Center and at the Miami VA Medical Center, both of which required patient notifications and testing.

Those who may have been exposed to cross-contamination were patients that received endoscopic procedures at the Murfreesboro GI Clinic from April 2003 to December 2008; Augusta ENT Clinic from January 2008 to November 2008; and Miami GI Clinic from May 2004 to March 2009.

VA has issued a statement saying they will continue to notify, inform, and treat all potentially impacted Veterans, regardless of risk, cause, or harm.

To complicate matters for the VA, at least 1,200 veterans were mistakenly told by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from a Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal neurological disease, among other problems due to a “coding error” in their system.

That’s right, the VA failed to properly follow directions and gave at least one veteran AIDS. They told over 1200 they had ALS when, in fact, they did not. Add these to the Administrator who directed mental health workers NOT to diagnosis PTSD in combat veterans due to the potential costs. She wanted the veterans to be diagnosed with anti-social behavior or pre-existing depression so the VA would not be responsible for their care.

Personally I had minor surgery on my left middle finger. The wound became infected with staph and required me to spend 21 days in the hospital and undergo over 15 additional surgical procedures. There was a question if I would loose my left hand or perhaps even my life. Today I have almost no use of my left hand because of the massive scaring.
These problems are just the surface of the problems ranging from mis-diagnosis to the actual “loosing” of patients. Google the VA and medical problems and look at the people who have disappeared from VA medical facilities only to be found dead somewhere in the facility days latter.

 

Post a Comment