St Petersburg Malpractice Lawyer

Shamefully Delayed Care is Killing America's Veterans

In a 104-page decision, Judge Stephen Reinhardt said, “Veterans who return home from war suffering from psychological maladies are entitled by law to disability benefits to sustain themselves and their families as they regain their health. Yet it takes an average of more than four years for a veteran to fully adjudicate a claim for benefits. During that time many claims are mooted by deaths. While it’s certainly no secret that General Eric Shinseki took over the helm of the Veterans Administration (VA) at the height of corruption and mismanagement, he promised to create relationships of trust, timeliness and excellence of services and support and to optimize opportunities for delivering the best services with available resources (January 14, 2009). In 2009, Rep. Bob Filner, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman, said that 41 0f 57 VA regional offices had crucial documents in the shredding bin. In addition to the shredding of documents, two VA attorneys were convicted for destroying and removing documents from veteran’s files. Medical records for soldiers from Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm were destroyed because there was no room to ship them back to the States- contrary to Army regulations governing the preservation of wartime records. With the VA’s backlog of claims at one million, many veterans are losing jobs, homes and families as they fight their way through a system that remains hostile. Many die from their illnesses during their fight for benefits, and over 120 veterans each week take their own lives. The motto, “Deny, Deny, Deny and Wait For Them To Die” has resonated across hundreds of veteran websites in recent years. Marian in Oceanport, NJ said her husband, Frederick, was drafted into WWII and spent three years in the South Pacific. He came home with malaria. Marian recalled, “After months in Army hospitals, he got a medical discharge that came with a small disability compensation. Even though he was too sick to get a decent job, his small compensation was cut down each year until he got nothing. The real kicker was that the malaria came with very high fevers, and we were unable to have children.” Chauncey’s doctor, Robin Tassinari, MD Professor of Psychiatry Professor of Internal Medicine confirmed the relationship between Chauncey’s PTSD diagnosis and his current heart disease. In part, Tassinari wrote, “PTSD most definitely affects his multiple cardiac conditions.

How Did Our Calling Turn Into a Job?! (Part ... - Medical Malpractice

How many times a day do I hear fellow providers of health care ask themselves the title question? A dozen? A hundred? How many times have I asked myself the same question? We all mean it seriously. We all wish someone would give us back our calling.

People who provide health care – nurses, doctors, respiratory technicians, pharmacists, etc. – believe that we were called to do what we do. When we chose to enter health care, we were answering a call to nobility, not doing a job simply to pay the bills.

What has caused health care to go from noble calling to painful job?

Practice of health care Over the past century, dramatic advances in medical knowledge and technology have profoundly altered the role and capabilities of health care providers as well as their relationships with patients.

My grandfather graduated University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1912. In his day, there were 2 kinds of doctors: surgeons and physicians. That was all. Today, doctors are specialists and super-specialists. Orthopedic surgeons operate on one joint only. Care is now delivered by teams, rather than by a single physician.

Using modern capabilities such as CAT or PET scanners, both the structure and the function of all internal organs, even the brain, can be evaluated. No invasion of the body. No doctor hands on the patient at all.

Between the super-specialization, care by teams, and the interposition of technology, the doctor is increasingly separated from the patient.

Remember to read this information with great care, the issue and the techniques have plenty of varieties. Ultimately, there is the public perception of healthcare ‘s broken promise. Modern health care has oversold itself. Without meaning to, doctors have left patients with the impression that health care can fix anything. You and I know there are many, many medical conditions for which there are no good treatments. Intellectually, patients know this is but as soon as sickness strikes, emotion takes over. Provider becomes God. God will save me.

When the patient doesn’t recover fully, has an adverse outcome, or succumbs, obviously it’s God’s fault. Doctor-God has become Satan. Patients expect health care providers to be what they can never be: perfect. When providers demonstrate their humanity including limitations in what we can do or when our imperfection is manifest in a error, the bubble bursts and the trust relationship inverts to adversarial. Fiduciary becomes agent-of-my-distress.

American probate, protecting the public, improving the process

A Directory of Legal Malpractice Attorneys (New York: Random House, 1991): 1 1. 21. ... St. Petersburg Times, 26 March 1995. 34. State of Florida v. ...

Managing your legal career, best practices for creating the career you want

I was once asked by a friend to recommend the two best plaintiff's medical malpractice attorneys in our geographic area. Since US Department of Veterans ...

Markham's negligence counsel

ST. PETERSBURG, Pinellas Co. General Negligence Trials and Appeals; ... Board Certified as a Civil Trial Lawyer by the Florida Bar Board). ...

ABA Journal

About 8 percent of lawyers nationwide currently are facing malpractice claims, estimated Duke Nordlinger Stern, a St. Petersburg, Fla., liability risk ...

ABA Journal

The attorney pays a $150 initial referral fee to Legal Malpractice Experts Saenz : Not out to ... a risk management consultant in St. Petersburg, Florida. ...