Malpractice

[Itai]

My father died at a VA Hospital in East Orange, NJ on July 18, 1975 at the age of 46 under mysterious circumstances.  Leading up to that Thursday, he was finally admitted to the hospital on the previous Saturday despite the fact the I had driven him to the hospital everyday that previous week,(Monday through Friday) and he was sent home each day, having been told there was no reason he should be admitted.  We knew he had non-tropical sprue, which we understood to be a congential disease he had gotten from his mother, which had been under control for the few years he lived with it after he had been diagnosed with the disease in his early 40's.  He was put on a gluten-free diet,(flour, wheat, rye, barley free) since the disease is basically a malabsorption of the villi of the intestines which causes diarrhea.  My uncle was diagnosed at about the same age, and is still living.

On Sunday, the day after he was admitted, he was well enough to walk to the phone and call us. On Monday, he was admitted to ICU, without the family being notified.  On Tuesday, the last day I saw him, he was hooked to a catheter, IV and possibly oxygen, I can't remember the last for certain.  He spoke to me and held my hand very tightly, as if he knew the end was near.  After we saw him, my mother and I were told by the specialist who was treating him, that he had a tumor on his kidney or liver, I'm not sure.  We were stunned.  

His condition worsened, on Wednesday evening my mother and his siblings visited him and later that night, about 1 a.m. Thursday we got the call that he had died.  I remember my mother was told not to have a complete autopsy, which would include opening his head, etc. I wish I had been older when this happened, I was only 17 at the time, because I certainly would have pursued some legal action.  He had been seeing a General Practioner regularly for the sprue, and may have been to see the Specialist when first diagnosed with the disease. The Specialist just happened to be on staff at the Veteran's Hospital, that's why we took him there, rather than to a regular hospital.

Is it too late to sue for malpractice?  I think I know the answer to that.

As a child of the patient, turning 46 on March 23,(I think being the same age is getting to me)

can I get the medical records to see what really happened, while my mother is still alive, and I am sure, not interested in finding out the truth? Thank you in advance for any answer you can give me, it is deeply appreciated.  

[Fraser]

Dear S. MacL.,     "Is it too late to sue for malpractice?"      Decades too late.     "can I get the medical records to see what really happened, while my mother is still alive, and I am sure, not interested in finding out the truth?"     The VA will most likely release them to the family so you have to contact the VA.  But the regulations probably require your mother to ask for them. That is, you couldn't get them without your mother's signature.

Yours,

Tim Provis

Cal. Bar No. 104800

Wis. Bar No. 1020123

[email protected]