A Navy veteran has filed a medical malpractice suit against the VA, in which he alleges that a podiatrist at the Hampton VA Medical Center performed surgery on the wrong bone in his foot. The man alleges that the bone was not fractured, but the podiatrist performed surgery on it anyway, which later forced the man to get a second surgery.
The Case
The man first went to the VA medical center seeking treatment for a pain in his right foot. Diagnostic testing showed a stress fracture in his right foot. Shortly after, the man underwent a surgery known as an open reduction internal fixation, or ORIF, of the third metatarsal on his right foot. The surgery involved the placement of a metal plate and three screws along this metatarsal.
After the surgery, he took time off from work to recover, remaining off his right foot as instructed by the podiatrist. Shortly after he returned to work, he heard a pop in his right foot and experienced pain. He then went to a Navy medical center, where he was diagnosed with a fracture of the fourth and fifth metatarsals on his right foot. However, the x-ray also showed that the third metatarsal on his right foot had not been fractured in the first place.
The man then spoke to a second surgeon outside the VA. "The second-opinion physician allegedly confirmed that surgery on the man’s third metatarsal was unnecessary and that he needed surgery to place hardware on his fourth and fifth metatarsals; the physician also noted that the man had a post-operative infection from the first surgery," according to medicalmalpracticelawyers.com.
The man then had surgery to remove the metal plate and screws from his third metatarsal and repair his fourth and fifth metatarsals. He seeks "$2 .15 million in compensatory damages from the United States government."