The case sounds very similar to what happened to my brother.
Don’t get me wrong. He was very sick, also with diabetes. He had lost an eye to the disease and had bypass surgery.
My brother died July last year.
He was in the VA hospital for about a month, but seemingly getting better, and the last week he was there, he was very upbeat about getting released to go to a nursing center close to his home.
I had been going to visit him at the hospital every other day, and my sister went almost every day. There was a doctor there who told us that there was really nothing they could do for my brother, because his lungs looked very cloudy and he had developed an early case of stomach cancer. However, my brother was still very alert and hopeful of getting released.
The last day I saw him, I didn’t think that he was doing so badly, and I went home and so did my sister.
At about 12:15 AM the next day, I got a call while asleep in bed. It was a doctor telling me that he had been trying to contact my sister, who was the first contact on my brother’s next of kin list. She hadn’t answered her phone, so the doctor called me. He mumbled something about how they had tried and could not do anything. So, I interrupted the doctor and asked him “what the heck was he trying to tell me”. It’s then that he told me that my brother had passed. I said, “how could that be, since he was looking alert and hopeful of being released”. Doctor said that he had a blood clot that had apparently traveled from his leg and to his brain, which caused his death. Needless to say, I got up immediately and picked up my sister at her home and got to the hospital in about 1/2 hour.
What bothers me the most is that, the whole doctors’ staff was composed of interns, all from the local university in Tampa. (I guess from that you can make out which VA hospital my brother died at).
My sister (and my other sister from Orlando) suspected that, there was dereliction of duty, since those “doctors” apparently didn’t want to answer the calls from the patients, and the nurses seemed to have the same attitude.
I go to the VA for my care too, but, with a very suspicious mind. The doctor assigned for my primary care is retired from his practice. To me, he doesn’t need his “job”. My last visit to him he told me that at my age, it’s not advisable that I have a colonoscopy done, because after a certain age, people don’t react well to anesthesia and could even die. I went for a second opinion, to an outside doctor, and that doctor sent me for a consultation to specialist and that specialist scheduled me for a colonoscopy, which I had done 2 weeks later, with absolutely no problem at all.
The reason for my post, is to advise that every patient that uses the VA, be very careful, because, from what I saw, the doctors are there just to get through the internships and the primary doctors may not be looking out to give you the kind of care that can be had at a regular;outside doctor and/or regular/outside hospital.
I have two doctors now: the VA one, and the other that I’ve learned to trust more.
It is inevitable that when government provides services, quality suffers. Rationing is very real, and not a new issue; in the past it was just rationing of money that prevented them from attracting top talent.
Critics and skeptics about socialized medicine are smart to point to the VA issues as arguments against it.
A friend did his residency at the same VA hospital I used to use. I had NO insurance at the time.
He would go to class most days and had a small room and bed in the hospital, many nights he never saw the bed.
He was internal medicine and said it was busy at night.
They are also a source of cheap labor.
You mentioned the danger of a colonoscopy; it is real!
I went for my first one just routine nothing special.
By this time I had gold-plated insurance, a nice local hospital, Central DuPage.
My heart rate went into the single digits, not good, the procedure was halted.
I have kin that are physicians, they said the anesthetic can act differently for different people. And I ride a bike a lot, my resting heart rate is low- mid 40’s.
I waited 18 years to go back, and I went to a full-service hospital, not a stand alone clinic.
You bet I’m fearful.
My condolences Adorno, and thank you for the advice. I will use it.
My husband goes to the VA. He is allowed to go to a local hospital if he cannot get down there. They treat him really well at our VA. Sometimes I think he should question more but he is stubborn. That said, he has COPD and heart issues that are monitored very well. I think we are fortunate that there are two other hospitals that rotate physicians with them. Keeps them on their toes.
I am so sorry for your loss. It sounds like he was blessed with you as family.