Posted on October 23, 2009

By Ben Schmidt, freep.com

A former Michigan soldier who lost his hand after an explosion while trying to disarm a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004 won a $4.3 million verdict today against the U.S. Army in a disability discrimination civil case.

“He proved that the Army created a hostile work environment for him because of his disability.” said Royal Oak attorney Kevin Carlson who won the case along with attorney Joseph Golden.

The attorneys represented James McKelvey, 38, of Macomb Township, who said in a discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit that a boss and coworker derided him as “the cripple, ” refused to provide him with computer equipment and door handles to accommodate his disabilities, excluded him from meetings and told him to stay in his office cubicle for months on end.

He said superiors also objected to him parking in a handicapped space at the Warren tank arsenal even though he had a state permit.

McKelvey was medically retired from the Army in December 2005. Two months later, he landed a civilian job as a weapons specialist at the Army’s Warren arsenal.

From the outset, he said, coworkers and supervisors harassed and ridiculed him. When he complained, he said, the treatment worsened. Eventually, he was told that if he didn’t like the way he was being treated, he should find a new job, he said.

McKelvey grew up near Ludington and joined the Army after high school. He spent 11 years on active duty as a bomb disposal expert.

After his discharge in 2001, he became an Oakland County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the jail and joined the National Guard.

In late 2003 he wound up in Iraq after his Guard unit was activated. He was severely injured in February 2004, when an explosion caused him to lose his right hand, mangled his left hand, damaged his vision and left him with a significant loss of lung capacity.

He woke up several weeks later and spent 11 months recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where President George W. Bush presented him with a Purple Heart.

The trial lasted two weeks in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor and ended today after two days of deliberations.

“Mr. McKelvey was an expert in defusing weapons of mass destruction and even with the need for his skills to protect us all, he was subjected to the most vile and vulgar insults and behavior with the full knowledge of his supervisors until he was forced to resign,” Golden said. “Mr. McKelvey survived his wounds in Iraq and asked only to move on with his life. This is not how we should be treating war heroes.”

May 2, 2009

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says 18 patients treated at its hospital in Murfreesboro have tested positive for a form of hepatitis since the agency began an investigation into the use of improperly sanitized equipment in colonoscopies there.

Five have tested positive for hepatitis B, and 13 have tested positive for the hepatitis C. In addition, one Murfreesboro patient tested positive for HIV.

All of the patients received colonoscopies at the Alvin C. York Medical Center between April 2003 and December 2008. During that time, the VA has said, some colonoscopies were performed at the Murfreesboro hospital using tubes with valves that were not working correctly. The improper valves may have exposed patients to bodily fluids from previous patients.

The VA has insisted that it is impossible to know whether the positive test results are directly linked to problems with hospital equipment, and that the risk of catching a virus in this way is exceptionally low.

In all, more than 6,300 Murfreesboro colonoscopy patients received letters this year advising them to be tested.

Similar problems were discovered at VA medical centers in Miami and Augusta, Ga. Nineteen patients from those two centers have tested positive for viruses; four of those positive tests were for HIV.

— CLAY CAREY
mcarey@tennessean.com

Associated Press

By JIM SUHR – 6 days ago

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A widow whose husband died at a Veterans Affairs hospital under fire for substandard care has agreed to settle her lawsuit against the government for $975,000, her attorney said.

Katrina Shank had sought $12 million in her federal wrongful-death lawsuit. Her husband, 50-year-old Robert Shank III of Murray, Ky., bled to death in August 2007, a day after undergoing gallbladder surgery at the VA hospital in Marion, Ill.

Shank’s widow claimed the government failed to sufficiently check the background of her husband’s surgeon, Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, before hiring him in January 2006.

Veizaga-Mendez resigned three days after Robert Shank’s death, and major surgeries were ordered halted there after inspectors attributed several patient deaths to questionable surgical care.

Terms involving Katrina Shank’s settlement were not disclosed in court documents, but one of her attorneys, Stan Heller, put the amount at $975,000. He said the sum amounts to an admission of responsibility, because “the government doesn’t toss money like that around easily.”

A VA spokesman, Paul Sherbo, said only that “the VA has no information to offer on this case, pending a review by the court.” According to the order by U.S. District Judge J. Phil Gilbert, the settlement becomes final after 90 days unless it hits a snag.

The VA found at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 were “directly attributable” to substandard care at the hospital. Those deaths did not include Robert Shank, who died months later.

The VA’s findings do not put the sole blame on Veizaga-Mendez, but Shank’s lawsuit said many or all of those who died were his patients.

At least one other lawsuit involving care by Veizaga-Mendez at the hospital is pending. James Marshall, 61, of Benton, Ky., died of a blood infection in July 2007, six days after Veizaga-Mendez performed a lymph node biopsy. His widow, Darla Marshall, is seeking $10 million in damages.

Veizaga-Mendez, who is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuits, has no listed telephone number and has not responded to repeated messages left by the AP at a Massachusetts home listed as an address for his wife.

            On June 17, 2008, ABC News reported on a story wherein veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are being recruited for government testing on the prescription drug Chantix.  In some cases, those who were recruited were paid $30 per month. 

            The United States Food and Drug Administration issued an Early Communication to the public and health care providers on November 20, 2007 that they were evaluating “…adverse event reports on Chantix related to changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and actual suicidal behavior…”  Tragically, the Veterans’ Administration did not issue a letter to the veterans involved until February 29, 2008.    

            This comes mere months after news that some of  our veterans are receiving care in facilities which are dirty and animal infested.  Surely, they deserve much better than they are getting. 

            If you or someone you love has been a victim of the neglect from the Veterans Administration, you don’t need to go through this alone.  I would like to invite you to visit my website at www.dreamlegalteam.com.  Feel free to fill out an online consultation form or engage in a live chat.  Once again, the website is www.dreamlegalteam.com.  Don’t wait.

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