Question:
I was, and am, under the care of the VA for service-connected injuries. In 2014 my primary care doctor finally decided to remove my tonsils to help with my obstructive sleep apnea. Before the procedure, the surgeon noticed after looking at my imaging that I had a deviation in my right sinus. The surgeon asked me a couple of days before my procedure if I would like him to correct it as well since it would take a short time and I would already be under general anesthetic. He said he would be working in that same location and that he could do it within 20 minutes or so. I agreed and the surgery on my tonsils and septum was done in 2014.
After surgery, I had problems breathing out of the right side of my nose. Of course, they said this was due to swelling after surgery and other issues post procedure. This went on for quite a while and after many visits to the VA hospital it was discovered that the procedure was not done correctly and my septum was actually worse than it was before the procedure. I was then prompted to have a corrective surgery for the surgery that was supposed to fix the problem in the first place.
Since the surgery couldn't be done within 30 days, I was able to go outside the VA. I went to a plastic surgeon at a non-VA facility who did a septoplasty on my nose to correct the previous surgery done by the VA surgeon. The septoplasty took around six hours and the post surgery pain and other issues were very bad. I now have a very crooked nose after the second procedure, my sinus (and the area of my nose closest to the sinus opening) constantly itches and feels as though there’s something in there, and I am constantly rubbing or scratching it. If I put my glasses on and you look at my face, my nose is completely bent and disfigured and it’s an issue for me every time I look in the mirror.
I am a service-connected veteran but the surgery was not done for anything service-connected so I’m wondering if I can claim this as some kind of disability rating under my current disability rating. Any answer you have or information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Please forgive me for any mistakes in punctuation, grammar, and spelling as I am doing this on my smart phone.
Jim's Reply:
No worries about typos, misspellings, punctuation or any of that here. Typing on my desktop is hard enough and I don't even try on my (not so smart) phone. We're just glad you took the time to message us so we can help.
You're describing what may well be medical malpractice. I'm not qualified to determine whether what you've experienced is malpractice or just the breaks of being operated on and I think you should speak to an expert.
VA health care is well insulated from medical malpractice claims. There are a few hoops to jump through when you set out to sue the federal government and a lot of experience counts. For those reasons I only refer to a single medical malpractice group https://verdictvictory.com/medical-malpractice/va-malpractice/
These folks are located in California but they can represent you anywhere. Medical malpractice lawyers will typically work with you on a contingency fee basis and they won't take any money from you unless and until they win the case.
Please get in touch with them sooner than later and let them know where you got the referral. Good luck sir.