Daughter "So Angry At VA"

Covington, WARodney H's ordeal with the VA and poor treatment at a veteran hospital started in June, 2008, when he went to Washington to visit his daughter, Gina. Rodney had sugar diabetes and had a low sugar attack. He was hospitalized and it was determined that he had a mass on his lung, which turned out to be a tumor.

The VA that Rodney usually dealt with could not get him in for an appointment until October or November, so it was recommended that Rodney stay in Washington with Gina.

"I wanted him to go to Arizona because I live alone and work, so I couldn't take care of him, but my sister in Arizona doesn't work, so she could take care of him," Gina says. "However, we decided he would stay here and get a primary doctor with the VA. [The VA treated Rodney from this point throughout his ordeal.]

"They did a needle biopsy, which showed that he had non-small cell cancer. We met with surgeons who wanted to do lung surgery, but talking with them concerned me because I kept correcting them. They talked about his lymph nodes, even though the lymph nodes didn't light up in his scan."

In August, Rodney was told he would have surgery. Gina and Rodney were told that if his blood sugar was above 200 he should not take insulin. Gina dropped Rodney off for his surgery with a blood sugar level of 230, only to be called by the hospital and told Rodney was on an insulin drip because his sugar was above 500. His surgery was postponed to the following week.

Rodney was to stay in hospital the day before the surgery so his sugar could be monitored. However, part way through that day, he called Gina to come pick him up. His surgery had been cancelled because the OR team had dealt with an emergency and did not want to work late to perform his operation. Rodney's surgery was finally completed a week later and Rodney and Gina waited to hear from the oncologist.

"We finally saw an oncologist in September," Gina says. "He told my dad that it [the cancer] had advanced further than they thought and if they were to do chemotherapy, it would kill him so the best bet was to do nothing. My dad was not showing signs of lung cancer, so the thought was that he could go a few more years without problems. The radiologist said the same thing. My dad's kidneys were not good and his diabetes was a concern, so radiation was out. We went home and thought that because his blood sugar was more in control and he wasn't showing signs of cancer, we would have fun and he could go a few years and not show signs of lung cancer.

"The next day there was a phone call from the VA saying they had good news and the doctor misread the PET scan so it was not as bad as they thought. They said best thing would be to do 2 light rounds of chemotherapy, a CT scan to see if they had shrunk the tumor and my dad could get another five years out of his life. That was great news and we were jumping for joy. They scheduled him for chemo the next week."

Gina was concerned about taking care of her dad and was told by the VA that Rodney could go into the nursing home for monitoring between his chemotherapy treatments. She says he was fine his first 2 days of chemo, but on the third day he went downhill—he couldn't walk and had pain in his legs. Even though the doctors wanted to send Rodney home, Gina said he needed to stay in the hospital. She also found out that her father could not go to the nursing home because it wouldn't accept chemotherapy patients.

The following Thursday, Rodney was sent home. Gina was told that he would have a nurse and a nurse's aid for help, but then found out that the paperwork had not been filed and it would take a week before it went through, leaving her to care for her father.

Rodney got worse throughout the weekend and saw a doctor on Tuesday. By that point his feet were swollen, he had spells of being out of breath from light exertion and periods where he felt as though he was having a heart attack.

On Wednesday, Gina received urgent phone calls from the VA stating that her father's blood work needed to be redone and that, if his kidneys were not good enough, he could not undergo further chemotherapy. In the hospital, Rodney was put on an IV for dehydration and told that his potassium was too high. He was also put on 4 different medications and sent home.

"I begged them to keep my father in the hospital," Gina says. "He needed to be there. I told the nurse that if he didn't get his chemo on Tuesday it was on her head. I was sick about it, thinking it was wrong that he was being sent home. The nurse said the he didn't have a fever and wasn't really sick, but he WAS really sick.

"By Friday night, my father started losing all his hair. We were laughing so hard about it there were tears in our eyes. We went to bed and I woke up at 2:00 AM to a loud boom. My dad died on my kitchen floor.

"I thought he was going to live another 5 years and I just wonder if there was something these doctors and nurses knew that I didn't. Did they not want to fix my dad? I wake up with nightmares about everything they messed up on.

"I lost a daughter 5 years ago to a burst blood vessel [she was 12 years old], and I know doctors did everything they could for her. I didn't have this feeling. With my dad, I feel like I did everything I could to get him through this and the VA did nothing. If they had, he would have been in the hospital.

"He didn't have to die on my kitchen floor a couple of days after being in the hospital. He passed away on Oct. 4. I was shocked. I am so angry at the VA. I can accept that my dad passed away but I can't accept how he died. Is this what our medical system is? I told the VA that I just wanted an apology from doctors. I want them to admit they dropped the ball with my dad. I don't want people to have to go through that and be treated that way. My dad had plenty of life left in him."