Quote from: elmerfudd on February 19, 2012, 05:26:22 PM
In fact, I would venture to say that people frequently get what they expect.  When I go to the VA, I espect to be served by comptetent, caring professionals.  And I have been. There was one physician who had a monstrous chip on her shoulder for some reason, but she left for the "private sector."  Even she did a good job, IMO.

I bet you expect second class service, don't you?  That may be why you get it. 

Nope, the service is fine, though that has a lot to do with being virtually over staffed.
But you do realize many of the doctors that work their are straight out of med school.
The head of plastic surgery has only been practicing 3 years, though he is a real nice guy, he is very young and inexperienced.
And those working under him are just kids.
That's why I almost bled out in surgery, inexperienced kids learning surgery.
But like I said, they have the best of intentions and like doing what they're doing.
Once they get some experience under their belt, they will move on to a better paying job.
Buyer beware...

Quote from: Solar on February 19, 2012, 05:39:53 PM
Nope, the service is fine, though that has a lot to do with being virtually over staffed.
But you do realize many of the doctors that work their are straight out of med school.
The head of plastic surgery has only been practicing 3 years, though he is a real nice guy, he is very young and inexperienced.
And those working under him are just kids.
That's why I almost bled out in surgery, inexperienced kids learning surgery.
But like I said, they have the best of intentions and like doing what they're doing.
Once they get some experience under their belt, they will move on to a better paying job.
Buyer beware...

Glad you made it out alive.  Truly.  But it would seem these kids did a reasonbly good job on the whole.  I mean, you have a disability based on back problems but you spend your spare time cutting and splitting firewood.  If you were on workers comp for a bad back and they had a pic of you cutting and splitting wood, you might end up in jail for fraud. 

Quote from: elmerfudd on February 19, 2012, 07:02:14 PM
Glad you made it out alive.  Truly.  But it would seem these kids did a reasonbly good job on the whole.  I mean, you have a disability based on back problems but you spend your spare time cutting and splitting firewood.  If you were on workers comp for a bad back and they had a pic of you cutting and splitting wood, you might end up in jail for fraud. 

That's only a small percentage of my disability, I do what I can, when I can.
Most of my time is restricted to the house anymore.

And no, they did not do a reasonably good job.
What was supposed to be a two hour operation, wound up taking more than ten hours and more than a week in the hospital.
And because they screwed up my medication, they will be giving me a set of new teeth, I lost eight from the mess.
So no, I would not say the care is great, but rather mediocre at best.
Efficient, yes, but beyond that...

Quote from: Solar on February 19, 2012, 07:18:34 PM
That's only a small percentage of my disability, I do what I can, when I can.
Most of my time is restricted to the house anymore.

And no, they did not do a reasonably good job.
What was supposed to be a two hour operation, wound up taking more than ten hours and more than a week in the hospital.
And because they screwed up my medication, they will be giving me a set of new teeth, I lost eight from the mess.
So no, I would not say the care is great, but rather mediocre at best.
Efficient, yes, but beyond that...

Wow.  Makes me appreciate even more the value of good health insurance.  Running without it just isn't worth the risk.

I am truly sorry your experience with the VA healthcare system has been so bad.

I feel sure you've already looked into this, but if not, it might be worth looking into:

http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/a-guide-to-suing-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-for-medical-malpractice

Quote from: elmerfudd on February 20, 2012, 05:21:02 AM
Wow.  Makes me appreciate even more the value of good health insurance.  Running without it just isn't worth the risk.

I am truly sorry your experience with the VA healthcare system has been so bad.

I feel sure you've already looked into this, but if not, it might be worth looking into:

http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/a-guide-to-suing-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-for-medical-malpractice

Thanks, I didn't know it existed.
The sad part is, 99% overall was good, but between cutting too deep and hitting a main artery and prescribing the wrong meds, or what ever they did in that instance, it was just those two tiny errors, both of which could have been deadly.
But it shows just how specialized and good American medicine is, when they follow procedure, and how badly it can go, when they don't.
In my case, I credit the failure to inexperience.