Military faces challenge to malpractice shield
(AP)
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Veterans, military families and others who oppose a decades-old law that shields military medical personnel from malpractice lawsuits are rallying around a case they consider the best chance in a generation to change the widely unpopular protection.
The U.S. Supreme Court has asked for more information from attorneys and will decide next month whether to hear the case of a 25-year-old noncommissioned officer who died after a nurse put a tube down the wrong part of his throat.
If the law is overturned, it could expose the federal government to billions of dollars in liability claims. That makes it highly unlikely a divided Congress desperate to cut expenses will act on its own to change what's called the Feres Doctrine, a 1950 Supreme Court ruling that effectively equates injuries from medical mistakes with battlefield wounds.
The court case involves the death of Air Force Staff Sgt. Dean Patrick Witt, who was hospitalized in 2003 for what should have been a routine appendectomy at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. Following surgery, a nurse anesthetist inserted a breathing tube into his esophagus instead of his trachea or airway, depriving his brain of oxygen. Witt, of Oroville, Calif., died once his family removed him from life support three months later.
The nurse admitted her mistake and surrendered her state license. Federal courts denied the legal claim by Witt's widow, saying their hands were tied by the Feres Doctrine. Witt's family appealed, aiming to help other service members who get hurt in military hospitals.
"We labored on this for a long, long time, and we decided that the right thing to do here was to protect the rights of other people who go into the military and are signing away their rights to get good health care in the military system," said Witt's brother-in-law, Carlos Lopez, of Salt Lake City. "So we're hoping, we're praying, that his case could be the one that changes everything."
The Feres (pronounced FEHR-es) ruling grew out of the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, which allowed lawsuits against the government for negligent acts under certain circumstances. Initially the law was interpreted to forbid lawsuits by military personnel and their families only for combat-related injuries and deaths, but the decision in Feres vs. United States — involving a soldier who died in a barracks fire — widened that exclusion to bar any lawsuits over injuries "incident to military service."
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Military faces challenge to malpractice shield
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
After over 60 years, Daytona Beach soldier's remains are coming home
Many people do not know how many were not accounted for after Korea.
Here is one more story I came across that will warm your heart a bit more. It is about the Vietnam War and a group of veterans, police and firefighters making a difference.
KOREAN UNACCOUNTED FOR
(Bodies not identified/bodies not recovered) 8,176
Prisoner of War 2,045
Killed in Action 1,794
Missing in Action 4,245
Non-battle 92
Total: 8,176
After over 60 years, Daytona Beach soldier's remains are coming home
By Jason Wheeler, Volusia County Reporter
Last Updated: Friday, April 22, 2011 2:58 PM
DAYTONA BEACH --
The son of a U.S. soldier, killed during the Korean War, is getting ready to lay his father to rest -- 61 years after he died.
Sergeant First Class James Caldwell's remains were were excavated from a mass grave by the North Korean government in the 90's, and turned over to the U.S.
DNA helped identify the remains at the POW-MIA Accountability Center.
Johnston Caldwell was a toddler when his father disappeared in 1950.
For Caldwell, he and his sister said their goodbyes years ago.
"I lost my dad when I was a kid, only 4 1/2 years of age," Johnston Caldwell said. "I never got to know that much about him except what my mother told me, so we kind of buried him a long time ago."
James Caldwell's remains are being flown to Volusia County on Monday. They will be met by a full military honor guard, as well as the president of the local Korean War Veterans Assocation, Robert McGuire.
According to McGuire, Caldwell's family is lucky. Many more families are still waiting for word of their loved ones.
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Daytona Beach soldier's remains are coming home
Here is one more story I came across that will warm your heart a bit more. It is about the Vietnam War and a group of veterans, police and firefighters making a difference.
KIA Man’s Dog Tag Returned to Family by Nam Knights
Biker group returns fallen soldier’s dog tag
By AUDREY PARENTE, Staff writer
March 10, 2011 – DAYTONA BEACH — At 16, Darlene Woodruff looked up to her soldier cousin, Army Sgt. Robert Melvin Fletcher, who wrote letters to her from the jungles of Vietnam.
The thought of him not coming home never crossed her mind. But on Mother’s Day in 1968, she learned of his death.
“I remember thinking — wondering — what kind of things he had faced over there as such a young man,” Woodruff said. “I remember thinking he had done something far greater than I had done or would ever do.”
More than four decades later, as part of an annual Bike Week party Thursday morning, she learned how her cousin died.
At a special ceremony at the Veterans of Foreign War Post 1590, she watched her sister, Sharron Blais, clutch his dog tag and hug the soldier in whose arms he died.
The former soldier, retired steelworker Clifford William Searcy Jr., found his way to Daytona Beach and Fletcher’s family as part of a chain of events that began in 1998 when a Wall Street trader bought a sack of 100 dog tags from a Vietnamese peasant. The journey ended with Searcy telling Woodruff and Blais the story of their cousin’s final moments.
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KIA Man’s Dog Tag Returned to Family by Nam Knights
JP Morgan and Chase will pay $26 Military Foreclosure Claims
Bank Settles Military Foreclosure Claims
April 22, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Bill Murphy Jr.
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase and Co., which admitted earlier this year that it had improperly overcharged thousands of military families on their mortgages and foreclosed on the homes of servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan, will pay $26 million to settle the class action lawsuit that brought the activity to light.
Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles and his wife, Julia, filed the suit, which accused Chase of ignoring the protections they were due under a federal law known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
“We are sorry and regret the mistakes our firm made on mortgages for members of the military, and we’d like to thank Capt. and Mrs. Rowles for helping us address them,” Chase's chief administrative officer, Frank Bisignano, said in a statement announcing the deal. “We hold ourselves accountable and responsible for these mistakes, and fixing them is just the beginning of a new way forward with the military and veteran community as we make serving them a core part of how we operate our business every day."
“My family and I thank Chase for resolving this matter,” Capt. Rowles said in the same statement.
“It is our hope that this settlement will result in greater attention by the entire financial services industry to the nation’s laws that protect our military families."
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Bank Settles Military Foreclosure Claims
April 22, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Bill Murphy Jr.
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase and Co., which admitted earlier this year that it had improperly overcharged thousands of military families on their mortgages and foreclosed on the homes of servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan, will pay $26 million to settle the class action lawsuit that brought the activity to light.
Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles and his wife, Julia, filed the suit, which accused Chase of ignoring the protections they were due under a federal law known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
“We are sorry and regret the mistakes our firm made on mortgages for members of the military, and we’d like to thank Capt. and Mrs. Rowles for helping us address them,” Chase's chief administrative officer, Frank Bisignano, said in a statement announcing the deal. “We hold ourselves accountable and responsible for these mistakes, and fixing them is just the beginning of a new way forward with the military and veteran community as we make serving them a core part of how we operate our business every day."
“My family and I thank Chase for resolving this matter,” Capt. Rowles said in the same statement.
“It is our hope that this settlement will result in greater attention by the entire financial services industry to the nation’s laws that protect our military families."
read more here
Bank Settles Military Foreclosure Claims
Scientists make breakthrough in understanding stress related disorders again
Most enter into the military right out of high school. This region of the brian is not fully developed until the age of 25. So there you have part one of the reason so many young veterans never leave combat behind and why they grow old fighting battles in their minds.
The problem I'm having right now is this study was even done in the UK when it was already known years ago. This is one more reason why there has been no real new research done.
I've been involved with PTSD since 1982 when I met my Vietnam Vet husband. Over the years there isn't much I have not read simply because my life was involved as his wife. This wasn't just research to me. It was my life so it mattered a great deal. Over all these years I've gone to more conferences and taken training to the point where I cannot remember all of them unless I search my book case and storage boxes for the information I brought back home. I can tell you for a fact this information has been out there for several years but it did not come from studying members of the military. It came from research done on civilians.
What this does not include is the answer as to why the average rate of humans exposed to trauma and ending up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one out of three and not 100%. The answer is in how we are all different.
Some people are selfish thinking about themselves and their own needs more than others. Some are compassionate enough that they put other people ahead of themselves. Some are in between these two groups. PTSD strikes those who are able to feel more deeply than others. They not only walk away with their own pain but they take upon themselves the pain of others.
They want to develop a drug that blocks proteins without ever understanding why PTSD strikes in the first place. They don't understand why the exposures to traumatic events increase the risk of PTSD even in the subjects that fall into the "self" group. They ignore the increased levels of police officers over firefighters and the military higher than anyone else. Police and military members are not only exposed to more events but they also participate in the events with violence. Their PTSD is much different than simply surviving the event itself. Firefighters respond after the fire and they develop PTSD as well but as with civilians, it is a different type of wound they carry with them.
Until researchers understand what is behind it, they will not make any real contributions to healing it. Repeating studies that were already done is a waste of time.
Scientists make breakthrough in understanding stress
A team of neuroscientists has made a breakthrough in understanding how the brain responds to traumatic events.
The discovery could lead to new treatments for stress-related psychiatric disorders.
Dr Robert Pawlak, from the University of Leicester, said: "It was known certain individuals are more susceptible to detrimental effects of stress.
"However, the reasons were not clear."
Researchers, led by Dr Pawlak, found that the emotional centre of the brain – the amygdala – reacts to stress by increasing production of the protein neuropsin.
This triggers a series of chemical reactions including activating a gene that determines the stress response.
Blocking those proteins reduced stress levels.
Dr Pawlak said: "We are tremendously excited about these findings. Our discovery opens new possibilities for the prevention and treatment of stress-related psychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder."
Scientists make breakthrough in understanding stress
The problem I'm having right now is this study was even done in the UK when it was already known years ago. This is one more reason why there has been no real new research done.
I've been involved with PTSD since 1982 when I met my Vietnam Vet husband. Over the years there isn't much I have not read simply because my life was involved as his wife. This wasn't just research to me. It was my life so it mattered a great deal. Over all these years I've gone to more conferences and taken training to the point where I cannot remember all of them unless I search my book case and storage boxes for the information I brought back home. I can tell you for a fact this information has been out there for several years but it did not come from studying members of the military. It came from research done on civilians.
What this does not include is the answer as to why the average rate of humans exposed to trauma and ending up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one out of three and not 100%. The answer is in how we are all different.
Some people are selfish thinking about themselves and their own needs more than others. Some are compassionate enough that they put other people ahead of themselves. Some are in between these two groups. PTSD strikes those who are able to feel more deeply than others. They not only walk away with their own pain but they take upon themselves the pain of others.
They want to develop a drug that blocks proteins without ever understanding why PTSD strikes in the first place. They don't understand why the exposures to traumatic events increase the risk of PTSD even in the subjects that fall into the "self" group. They ignore the increased levels of police officers over firefighters and the military higher than anyone else. Police and military members are not only exposed to more events but they also participate in the events with violence. Their PTSD is much different than simply surviving the event itself. Firefighters respond after the fire and they develop PTSD as well but as with civilians, it is a different type of wound they carry with them.
Until researchers understand what is behind it, they will not make any real contributions to healing it. Repeating studies that were already done is a waste of time.
It took a Vietnam Vet 28 years to have VA claim approved
You may read this and say "it's great" but when you think about the hell they go through between filing a claim and finally seeing the day it is honored, you'd know how high the price was. It eats away at them when they see everything they have slip away and it seems no one gives a damn.
Local veteran wins 28-year-long battle for disability and medical benefits with the help of Sen. Gillibrand
Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011
By PAUL POST
ppost@saratogian.com
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Vietnam veteran Roger Lefco has finally won a 28-year battle to obtain disability and medical benefits.
The 68-year-old Stillwater resident has obtained $42,000 in retroactive benefits and will get an additional $2,600 in monthly Veterans Administration benefits going forward.
He was forced to leave his job 10 years ago because of war-related post-traumatic stress disorder and has been out of work ever since.
"There is hope for New York veterans," he said. "They should never give up and keep on fighting for what they deserve."
Lefco served in Vietnam from 1963 to 1966, where he picked up fuel, bombs and explosives for delivery to his own base at Phu Bai. In 1970, he went to work for New York Telephone Co. where he stayed until December 2001, when PTSD forced him to leave his job.
Lefco filed his first claim for VA benefits in 1983. However, at that time, veterans were required to document specific incidents that might have triggered the disorder.
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Local veteran wins 28-year-long battle
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