Service members may finally get justice for medical malpractice

New measure would allow troops to sue for military malpractice mistakes

Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
  April 30, 2019

The new legislation — named for Sgt. 1st Class Richard Stayskal, a Green Beret fighting stage four lung cancer because of Army doctors errors — would allow malpractice lawsuits against the military by creating an exemption to the Feres Doctrine, a 69-year-old legal precedent barring that legal action.

The view from the judge’s bench in the courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., on Jan. 4, 2019. (EJ Hersom/Defense Department)

After hearing tearful testimony from the victims of military medical negligence, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers announced new legislation to do away with the legal rules protecting the Defense Department from medical malpractice lawsuits.

“When doctors fail to perform or woefully misread tests, when nurses botch routine procedures, when clinicians ignore and disregard pain, service members deserve their day in court,” said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and the chairwoman of the House Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel.

“We’re not talking about special treatment. We’re talking about giving service members the same rights as their spouses, federal workers, and even prisoners. When compensation schemes are insufficient, service members should have their claims heard in the justice system.”
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Iraq veteran's suicide puts doctors on trial for PTSD treatment

Veterans family suing their late sons doctors for wrongful death and medical malpractice
WFMJ News
By Lindsay McCoy, Reporter
Posted: Jan 14, 2014

WARREN, Ohio - A veteran's family is suing their late son's doctors for wrongful death and medical malpractice.

Michael Ecker, 25, took his own life in late August of 2009. He returned from Iraq, because he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury.

His father sat with his attorneys in Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Rice's courtroom Tuesday, as medical experts took the stand to answer questions from both sides.

Dr. Frank and Zachary Veres, are being sued, but their attorney, Thomas Prislipsky, maintains there was no wrong-doing on their behalf. They began treating Ecker in 2009 after he left the care of the Veteran's Clinic.
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Military doctors at Fort Hood failed soldier with cancer

San Benito soldier battles stage 4 cancer as wife wages war against military healthcare
by Marcy Martinez
Valley Central.com
Posted: 04.19.2013

Staff Sgt. Lupe Maldonado has been dedicated to his country and his work.

"As soon as he woke up from surgery he asked when he could go back to work."

His wife Yerika Maldonado skypes with us from their home in Fort Hood where SSG Maldonado is now stationed.

After several tours to Iraq, he's now spending his days at home, fighting for his life.

"He has Stage 4 cancer."

It was only after the Maldonado's turned to a civilian hospital recently that the soldier was told the grave news.

The cancer has spread from his colon to his spleen, pancreas, and lymph nodes.

His wife says if only he had been told sooner, the cancer may have not spread and become inoperable.

"He told his medic while in Iraq that he had blood in his stool and the medic said it was hemorroides. Then he came back and at the army clinic they told him the same thing and said he was clear for duty."
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Military Officers Association throws support behind malpractice bill

MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 7, 2010 16:00:15 EDT

A bill that would reverse a 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that bans service members from suing the federal government for medical errors has gained the endorsement of an influential advocacy group.

“Your legislation would remove an inequity,” retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the 370,000-member Military Officers Association of America, wrote in a Friday letter to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the bill.

Legal recourse for medical negligence, Ryan noted, “is available to all other citizens, including military dependents, military retirees and survivors and their dependents, and even federal prisoners and wartime detainees. MOAA agrees that it is inconsistent to treat service members differently.”
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MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill

Feres Doctrine is Doctrine of Death

Active military barred from malpractice suits
1950 ruling protects service hospitals, regardless of error
By Walter F. Roche Jr.
April 20, 2008


Minutes after routine surgery for acute appendicitis in October 2003, Staff Sgt. Dean Witt, 25, was being moved to a recovery room at a Northern California military hospital when he gasped and stopped breathing.

A student nurse assisting an understaffed anesthesia team tried to resuscitate Witt and failed. Inexplicably, Witt's gurney was wheeled into a pediatric area. Lifesaving devices sized for children, not a 175-pound adult, proved useless, according to an internal report on the incident.

Medical personnel at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base screamed at each other. A double dose of a powerful stimulant was mistakenly administered. When a breathing tube was inserted, it was misdirected, uselessly pumping air into Witt's stomach. Errors compounded errors, and delays multiplied.



By the time a breathing tube was finally inserted correctly, Witt had suffered devastating brain damage. Three months later, he was removed from life support and died. Witt left behind a wife and two young children.

"This medical incident was due to an avoidable error," concluded a previously unpublished internal report, a copy of which was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

Despite the report's harsh criticism of Witt's medical care, the bereaved family could not sue for malpractice because Witt was an active-duty airman. Under limits stemming from an obscure Supreme Court ruling nearly 60 years old, military hospitals and their staffs are immune from malpractice claims if the victim is an enlisted man or woman on active duty.

A series of court rulings since 1950 have upheld the original decision, known as Feres v. United States, which denies members of the military the right to sue for damages over medical errors or even deliberate wrongs.

Feres defenders say the doctrine is necessary to protect the military from costly, time-consuming trials that could compromise military discipline. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California, member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former fighter pilot, called Feres "a reasonable approach to ensuring that litigation does not interfere with the objectives and readiness of our nation's military."

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