| Show Military medical errors I I malpractice are immune to redress red ress I t tf d 4 f I I I I I r Los Angeles Times photo by Liz O. O Bayles Alexis Witt a student holds her son Noah 4 and t daughter Hannah 5 Her husband Army Staff Dean Witt j died four years ago t p. p Walter Valter F F. Roche Jr Los Angeles Times Tima Minutes after routine surgery for acute appendicitis in October 2003 Staff Dean Witt Vitt 25 was being moved to a recovery room at a northern California military hospital wh when n he gasped and stopped breathing A student nurse assisting an understaffed anesthesia team tried to resuscitate Witt Vitt and failed Inexplicably Witts Witt's gurney was wheeled into a pediatric area Lifesaving devices sized for children not a 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 ofa a powerful stimulant was mistakenly administered When a breathing tube was finally inserted it was misdirected uselessly pumping air into the patients patient's stomach Errors compounded errors and delays multiplied By the time a breathing tube finally was inserted correctly Witt Vitt had devastating brain damage Three months later he was removed from life support and died Witt who grew up in Oroville Calif left behind a wife and two children including a old month son This medical incident was due to an avoidable error concluded a previously unpublished internal report a copy of which was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times j i Despite the reports report's harsh criticism of Wits Witt's medical care the bereaved family could not sue for malpractice because Witt was an duty active-duty airman Under limits stemming from an obscure Supreme Court ruling ling nearly 6 60 years ol old military hosp hospitals t ls am 4 their staffs are immune fron front malpractice claims even fo foi the most egregious lapses i ithe if the victim is an enlisted man o 05 ot t woman on active duty i iA A series of court rulings since since 1950 have upheld the decision known as Feres vs United States which denie denies members of the military the to sue for damages over medics medics' errors or even deliberate wrongs wrongs wrongs' Barbara Cragnotti of Medford Ore learned of the Feres case casa after her son Joseph suffered lung and neurological injuries from undiagnosed while under a military doctor care Joseph Cragnotti was in th Navy and had nearly completed training for submarine duty when whet he was stricken Military medical personnel failed to provide antibiotics having and her son ended up having havin multiple surgeries He lost p par of a lung His mother said Pill hi condition deteriorated after doctors at the naval in Bremerton Wash Nash tool tools the sailor off a needed drug causing seizures and t Military Malpractice t J tt t Continued on A Al 10 0 t i Military Malpractice Continued from Al neurological damage Joseph Cragnotti now 28 has left the military but still needs treatment for his medical conditions His mother joined Veterans Equal Rights Protection Advocacy a nonprofit group determined to expose and remedy what it calls the un- un American Feres doctrine Barbara Cragnotti now head of the organization foresees more trouble as wounded soldiers from Iraq q and Afghanistan strain ri a taxed taxed military health system Congress is not going to act until the public forces them to she said The military medical establishment is hiding behind the Feres doctrine she said whose husband James 35 died after receiving questionable medical care at Missouri's Ft Leonard Wood said accountability is lacking One of the most disturbing things is that these doctors can do anything and nothing happens she said Army Capt James Lemp was diagnosed with a stomach virus in 2003 Hours later he was brain- brain dead from a stroke-like stroke condition cal called ed verte vertebral ral artery di dissection se tion Experts hired by his wife said that with proper treatment he would have had a 90 percent chance of reco recovery ery Feres Peres defenders say the doctrine is necessary to protect the military from costly time-consuming time trials that could compromise military discipline Rep Duncan Hunter R a member of the House Arm Armed d Services Committee and a former called Feres a reasonable approach to ensuring that litigation does not interfere with the objectives and readiness of our nations nation's military For ears the of Jf r r Justice and the Pentagon have joined join d forces to fend off ofT legal and legislative challenges to Feres But fresh attempts to repeal Feres arc in the works spurred spun in part by the January death of Marine Carmelo Rodriguez A CBS television news crew arrived to interview Rodriguez just moments before he died holding the hand of his year old son Rodriguez 29 an Iraq War veteran from New York had been ravaged by cancer that l he e and his family blamed on years of misdiagnoses Military doctors mistook a deadly melanoma for a wart wali His case prompted Rep Maurice p. p Hinchey D D- D NY I to promise promis renewed efforts to overturn F Feres Feres' eres Previous bills have passed easily in the House but died in the Senate No service member should ever become sick or die as the result of poor military medical care Hinchey said I believe our military has outstanding doctors but if those doctors fail failour failour failour our men and w women men in uniform then there must be some system of accountability James B. B Smith a New Jersey attorney vho served as a military judge during a year 30 service career said the theory behind F Feres eres is that since the military provides full medical care for members and lifelong veterans benefits there is little practical need for financial damages for malpractice The military is already providing for you and that's your sole remedy Smith said T The M. M 1950 Feres decision encompassed asse three separate cases One involved a soldier named Rudolph J. J Feres who died in a afire afire afire fire caused by a faulty barracks heating system The others were the victims of medical malpractice One had sued after a towel nearly 3 feet long was discovered in his abdomen left there by errant military surgeons The court was interpreting ng the Federal Tort Claims Act which gives citizens a a. limited right to sue the US U.S. government for wrongs resulting from the actions of federal employees or agencies But the Supreme Court in a unanimous opinion by Justice Robert H. H Jackson reasoned that duty active-duty members of the military could seek other remedies for such wrongs including Veterans Administration benefits The compensation system which normally requires no litigation is not negligible Jackson wrote The Supreme Court came within a single vote of overturning Feres Feresin in 1987 Justice Antonin one of four dissenting justices wrote ie that Feres deserved the widespread almost universal criticism it has received He lambasted Congress for doing little if anything to correct the unjust and irrational results of the doctrine Among the curious aspects of Feres is that it bars malpractice suits by duty active-duty military personnel but not by their spouses or other family members who also are entitled to treatment at military hospitals It doesn't make any sense said Washington-based Washington attorney Eugene Fidell If a doctor on a dependent on one day the family can sue But if he commits the same malpractice the next day on a GI they cant An investigative panel convened by the Air Force shortly after Witts Witt's surgery concluded in its unreleased still report that due to assignments deployments and recent ill health the anesthesia unit at the Travis Air Force Base hospital was badly understaffed There is insufficient manning to support operational tempo and the teaching mission of the hospital the report said It found that the authorized complement of seven anesthesiologists was down downto to four available for duty WA F V 7 f 01 0 R a. a lre r- r s c t tn r n L A a. a a 3 A a Photo courtesy of Vi or nV i it Portrait of Army Staff Dean Witt Vitt who was taken off lif life lJ support in January 2004 t j This medical incident n was due to an avoidable error the report said The practice of anesthesia at a medical center should not rely on the minimum standard In response Travis officials said the h hospital could increase its only if the Pentagon provided additional personnel Base officials declined to comment on any aspect of the Witt case however citing privacy restrictions Despite the long legal odds Witts Witt's widow Alexis is determined to fo challenge Feres Feresin in court r this month she v wV ir r was formally notified that that-i c administrative claim t tAir Air Force had been declined t expected rejection that that exha all options but litigation One subsequent development that could be a factor in hi th the Wife i j family's attempt to cl 1 ng Feres involves a nurse an who helped treat the tutman After Witts Witt's death her h hn n was revoked b by the si state t t fl it California f for r n negligence 1 di arid and jd i incompetence fi j r 3 J t fl |
