VA Medical Malpractice Victim
Peggy Satchel's husband had eight hours of back surgery at the VA hospital in Tucson, AZ. He eventually died of septic shock and pneumonia post surgery according to the coroner’s report. Peggy believes cause of death was veteran medical malpractice. He was only 57 years old. She believes her husband needed surgery because of deteriorating discs in his back caused by the medicine he took for Hepatitis C which he contracted while in the service. Shortly after the surgery he went back to the VA hospital for a follow-up exam and the doctor said he was fine, but they never looked at him. If they had, sepsis could have been averted. Instead, he was sent home regardless of an incision that had split open and was infected. The pneumonia was discovered when he woke up at home with a high fever of 103F degrees. He was taken to the hospital immediately, but by the time he was admitted he had pneumonia in both lungs. This hospital wasn't equipped to care for him but they couldn't find a bed in any other VA hospital. In the meantime they kept him overnight and cleaned up his incision. They tried all the next day to get him into a VA hospital; finally he was air-lifted to Scottsdale. They kept him in Scottsdale for three days. He had to go through another surgery: they opened the wound and took out some plastic around a metal appliance that was used to fuse the discs. They had to put him in a special bed and move him continually, because of the pneumonia. He was there until a bed became available in the Tuscon VA, where he had the surgery originally. He spent three months at that hospital. He came home and was on the mend, but then fell sick again. He was again taken to the VA hospital where they kept him overnight. The next day he died. The coroner wrote that he died from septic shock and pneumonia.
