Late Veteran's Sister Gets $2.1M In Medical Malpractice Suit

Late Veteran's Sister Gets $2.1M In Medical Malpractice Suit

Introduction

U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny awarded a plaintiff with $2.1 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit involving her late brother who was a U.S. Army veteran, and former long-haul trucker, who spent nearly four months in intensive care at the VA Medical Center in Buffalo before dying. According to the 2010 lawsuit filed by the sister of the deceased, the executor of her brother's estate, the VA surgeons improperly installed a stent graft in one of her brother's arteries, which resulted in an irremediable loss of blood flow to his kidneys and ultimately leading to his death. Plaintiff's lawyer claimed that due to the medical center's negligence, the U.S. Army veteran was hospitalized for 118 days, during which he was forced to undergo over fifty subsequent surgical procedures. The federal judge, after a 17-day trial, held the surgeons responsible for the death, stating that either they or the mechanical device they operated failed when placing the stent graft. In his verdict, Judge Skretny noted that the army veteran consciously suffered pain for 69 days before his impending death. His sister had asked for $13 million in compensation but was awarded $2.1 million. The U.S. Army veteran was 64 when he died and is left behind with four adult children along with his sister. A hospital in Massachusetts was booked on similar medical malpractice charges when the authorities of the hospital failed to provide the necessary treatment to an 11-month-old infant. Even though the parents of the victim have been awarded $11.5 million, medical negligence resulted in lifetime ailments for the child.