I am an RN w/ many years in practice. My husband 101st airborne was a nurse for years & went back to school to become a double gold sealed PA-c in family practice & surgery. The horrors I saw @ John Cochran VAMC. there isnt enough time to tell it all. I believe they are responsible for his death. My husband had an atypical melanoma come up on his shoulder. A private Dr burned it out said it was nothing. He never sent a biopsy off which is the standard of care. It returned & another Private provider cut it out & still sent no biopsy for exam. It returned a 3 rd time. & this time he had swollen lymph nodes. . This time the took all his lymph nodes out @ a private hospital. Quick, easy & good care. Unfortunately , the surgeon left a cancerous node in. We lost our insurance so my husband used his VA benefits. On the first exam w/ the cancer Dr. He told Bill that in spite of him being clear of cancer the VA couldnt justify the cost of treating him. He was 47 years old. Was very healthy & private Dr S thought he would have a good chance of survival. After about a year his primary MD said it was ridiculous for them not to treat such a young healthy man. Finally, we were sent to an oncologist @ John Cochran VAMC. A hospital so dangerous they have a police station inside. I was taken to a room & instructed to not move out of line of the camera as rapes, assaults & Murders had occurred there. My husband had started having unbearable arm pain. He was never one to complain/ take something for even a headache. He spent hours in the ER & was treated so rudely. They told him he should have seen a Dr in Marion. We explained that we were meeting w/ the oncologist in the morning. That we would have been late & missed the appointment scheduled w/ the cancer team. We had all Bills records w/ us. They never even looked at him. Later we found out the pain was from where the cancer was growing around a nerve. Surgery is the only real treatment for Melanoma. It took forever for him to get a PET scan so he could have surgery nothing happened as fast or was as good as any private hospital. Nurses were rude, it was filthy dirty. One nurse dropped my husbands med on the floor & refused to get a clean one! The worst thing was the day they did a forequarter amputation. Very few people survive the procedure but it was deemed necessary to stop his pain. To avoid phantom limb pain, he insisted he wouldnt have the surgery unless they used a local anesthesia on his arm. The amputated limb remembers the last pain it felt otherwise & often will have that intense pain permanently . Both the Dr & anesthesiologist promised to do it. Mind you my husband worked OR for years & never was confused. He was taken to surgery that lasted hours & the Dr said they took him to the very edge of death. I hear my husband begging for pain relief. When the elevator doors open he told me they had reversed his anesthesia so they could get out on time as they had plans. A man I had never heard beg / scream out in pain. Yelled for pain relief for 12 hours. I tried in every way to get him help. All the while he was. Begging me to kill him by rolling him in the street in a w/chair. Finally a call to Senator Dick Durbins office resulted in his office calling VA to find out why he had no pain meds hours after his surgery. Still after 12 hours had he not been assessed by a nurse , had his medical orders transcribed nor had anything for pain. In fact one of the hateful nurses asked us as she was leaving what kind of surgery he had. She was head nurse , I had begged her to call the Dr & get him lain med. She said she would check on him. How do you check a man & not notice his Left arm , shoulder & most of his ribs on the left side. Only a flap of skin covered his heart & lungs. He finally got pain meds sent up from pharmacy. Only to have no nurses who knew how to use the pump. My husband had used that same pump at work & he tried to talk them through it. So, he waited over another hour to get his first dose of pain medicine. I could write a book of horrors that he & others faced w/ no recourse. I refused to leave his side as the care was so bad. I still have nightmares & was diagnosed w/ PTSD after this incident. The patient advocate, the Drs & everyone got a copy of our complaint. Only the Dr apologized. This is socialized medicine filled w/ incompetent staff because they cant work anywhere else because theyd be sued. No matter how bad they treat you at VA there is no accountability or recourse. I wonder how long it would take to get Bill his pain meds if Senator Durbins office hadnt called. I lost the love of my life & husband of 28 years 2/21/08. I believe the delay in his care killed h. Not to mention They used radiation therapy on him. They irradiated the wrong area & burned his neck, throat & esophagus . Then tried to tell us he had shingles! Please, we both have seen & treated lots of patients w/ shingles. These were burns. I wonder if they had radiated the right area if he would have lived . I never let those I love go to a hospital alone.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 15:12:56 +0000