Widows sue government over husbands' VA deaths

[May 30, 2008]  EAST ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Two widows have sued the U.S. government over care they say killed their husbands at an Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital where surgeries were halted last year after a spike in patient deaths.

The lawsuits filed in federal court in East St. Louis on behalf of the widows of Robert Shank III and James Marshall seek a combined $22 million in damages. The lawsuits, filed March 20 and April 29, respectively, only name the federal government, which runs the Veterans Affairs system, including the Marion hospital where the men were treated.

Both were patients of surgeon Jose Veizaga-Mendez, who resigned last August, three days after Shank, 50, bled to death following gallbladder surgery. Katrina Shank seeks $12 million in damages.

Marshall, 61, died of a blood infection last June, six days after Veizaga-Mendez performed a lymph node biopsy, Darla Marshall asserts. She is suing for $10 million.

"Now we have to let the legal process take its normal path," Stan Heller, an attorney for the women, said Thursday. He declined to elaborate.

The lawsuits accuse the government of negligence, saying it inadequately checked Veizaga-Mendez's background before hiring him in January 2006.

They claim a better check would have uncovered Veizaga-Mendez's "history of providing substandard care to his patients" in Massachusetts, where he was under investigation for allegedly botching seven cases in 2004 and 2005, including two that resulted in deaths. He has made payouts in two Massachusetts malpractice lawsuits.

Veizaga-Mendez could not be reached for comment. He has no listed telephone number in Illinois or Massachusetts and did not immediately respond to a message left Thursday at a Massachusetts home listed as his wife's.

Veizaga-Mendez had his Illinois license suspended indefinitely last October. He was permanently barred from practicing medicine in Massachusetts in November, requiring him to resign any other state medical licenses he may hold and withdraw pending license applications.

The federal government has not filed responses to the lawsuits.

Matt Smith, a VA spokesman in Washington, said in a statement that discussing litigation would be "inappropriate." He said the department has been contacting families since January "to review the care received over the past two years" and that the department "would assist patients and families, who believe they have been harmed, in their efforts to receive compensation."

He didn't say whether the Shank or Marshall families were among those contacted.

Messages left Thursday at the Marion VA were not returned.

Within a month of Shank's death, surgeries at the Marion site -- which serves veterans from parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky -- were halted after the VA found that at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 were "directly attributable" to substandard care there.

Those deaths did not include Shank's or Marshall's -- they died months later -- but the lawsuits allege, "many or all of these patients who died between October 2006 and March 2007 were patients of Dr. Veizaga-Mendez."

Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated, 10 patients died after receiving questionable care that complicated their health, officials said. Investigators could not determine if the actual care caused those deaths.

[Associated Press; By JIM SUHR]

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