US government settles allegations Navy doctor mishandled child birth for $11.5 million
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Scott Daugherty
SEP 14, 2019
A sailor gave birth five years ago to a baby boy at a Navy hospital. Things went wrong and the child suffered severe and permanent brain damage.
The Walter E. Hoffman United States Courthouse. (Thé Pham)
If the delivery happened in Virginia, any possible malpractice award would be capped at $2.15 million.
But Petty Officer 1st Class Deardre Bebeau gave birth in Guam, where local law doesn’t cap malpractice claims. The difference meant millions of dollars for her family.
The federal government agreed Friday to pay $11.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Bebeau and her husband, Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Bebeau Sr., both of Virginia Beach.
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Unplugged
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 12, 2019
I am unplugged until September 16th! As the single operator of this site...even I need some time off!
Court rules VA must pay for veterans' emergency room care, a decision that may be worth billions
NBC News
By Courtney Kube, Mosheh Gains and Adiel Kaplan
September 10, 2019
"All of this is unacceptable," said an appeals court in a decision that plaintiffs' attorneys say may yield up to $6.5 billion for veterans.
A doctor checks a patients prosthetic arm at the Veterans Affairs hospital in San Diego, Calif., in 2007. Charles Ommanney / Getty Images file
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs must reimburse veterans for emergency medical care at non-VA facilities, a federal appeals court ruled Monday — a decision that could be worth billions of dollars to veterans.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims said the VA has been wrongfully denying reimbursement to veterans who sought emergency medical care at non-VA facilities, and struck down an internal VA regulation that blocked those payments.
"All of this is unacceptable," said the ruling, which ordered the VA secretary to "readjudicate these reimbursement claims."
Plaintiffs' lawyers say that based on past estimates by the VA, the department is now on the hook for between $1.8 billion and $6.5 billion in reimbursements to hundreds of thousands of veterans who have filed or will file claims between 2016 and 2025.
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update List of Bases Contaminated with PFAS Chemicals Expected to Grow, Pentagon Says
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These 90 Army posts have contaminated drinking water
Military Times
By: Meghann Myers
September 11, 2019
“Because many PFAS chemicals build up in the body, even very low concentrations in drinking water can increase the risks of serious health problems. What’s more, the lack of regular monitoring suggests that military personnel could have been drinking water with even higher levels of PFAS in the past.” EWG senior scientist Dave Andrews
As a Pentagon task force looks into unsafe drinking water on its installations, a new list of Army posts has been added to the roster of bases where per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been found in ground water as recently as this year.
Ninety active Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard posts are on the list, obtained by the Environmental Working Group by Freedom of Information Act request, the findings of which were posted to the organization’s site late Tuesday night. The Army says that despite the confirmed presence of PFAS in the drinking water, no one is taking in unsafe levels of the chemicals, because their filtered water complies with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
Still, the EWG remains concerned.
Seventy-three on the list are Guard facilities, including armories, readiness centers and training areas. Of the hundreds of bases known to be contaminated, the Defense Department was required by the EPA to test about 70 following a 2012 rule on contamination monitoring.
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Formerly drug-addicted, homeless veteran finds stability in Antioch RV park; now faces eviction
KTVU
By Rob Roth
Posted Sep 10 2019
ANTIOCH, Calif. (KTVU) - Jimmy Gordon is a Vietnam veteran still living with battle scars from shrapnel.
"It's still right here. It's lodged right here," he said pointing to his leg.
Once homeless and drug addicted, Gordon says he's found stability in this informal RV community on private property in northeast Antioch.
"I've got serenity here. It feels like I am living," he says.
But it appears that paradise is about to be lost. Gordon and the rest of the 16 people living here are about to be evicted.
Not because the property owner, Joe Bosman wants to, but because the city of Antioch says he has to.
Code enforcement is requiring all my RV tenants to leave the property by October 1st," says Bosman, who has owned the almost three-acre lot for 19 years.
He's allowed people with RVs to settle here. Many are veterans, disabled seniors and mothers.
"It's close to our work. The tenants are nice and it is affordable," says Veronica Lewis-Ayers who lives in an RV with her husband and nine-month old baby boy.
Rent is $625 a month. The RVs have plumbing and electricity.
Bosman says the city told him his property doesn't meet the standards of a state-licensed RV park.
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