The Indy Star has reported that due to the "medical battery" a veteran suffered at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis, a lawsuit has been filed against the VA that provides a lengthy description of a painful medical procedure and later, a failed surgery.
T.Y., 60, entered the VA with a chief complaint of difficulty while urinating. According to the suit, T.Y. suffered through a medical procedure – where at one point two physicians used brute force to insert a wire scope into his penis – without enough pain medication.
It began when a resident urologist, Dr. N. L., couldn't insert the object into T.Y.'s body cavity, though the procedure is considered routine. While T.Y. began to bleed after several "jabs" and experience "excruciating pain" another doctor was called in.
The suit states, "Mr. (T.Y.) only had a small amount of local anesthesia to the tip of his penis."
The second doctor, R.M., joined Dr. N.L. and the two spent over an hour working on T.Y. They forced dilators into T.Y., opened up his urinary tract and placed a catheter. At one point during the procedure Dr. N.L. commented, "This is the Cadillac of dilations."
After the doctors left, T.Y. noticed that he was had not been cleaned of the "urine and blood" left behind after the procedure. He pulled himself up from the bed and asked for something he could use to do the job himself.
The VA sent him home without medication, and later that night T.Y. had to go to the emergency room to get something to ease the pain.
One month later T.Y. returned to the VA for surgery to remove the urinary blockage. He met with Dr. R.M. who informed him that Dr. N.L. would be doing the procedure. But T.Y. told Dr. R.M. "emphatically that he did not want (Dr. N.L.) to touch him," according to the suit.
Following the surgery, it was Dr. N.L. that looked down on T.Y. and explained that he had mistakenly punctured his prostate, and maybe his rectum, during the surgery.
T.Y. was held in the VA for three nights before he was well enough to be released. However, he now must endure "permanent scarring and damage, continuing pain and suffering, and urinary incontinence" and has sought treatment from an IU Health doctor.
T.Y. now requires an appendicovesicostomy – a surgical procedure that will create an opening in his abdomen so that he can drain his bladder as needed.
Damages are unspecified in the lawsuit.
Julie Webb, the local VA spokeswoman, could not comment on the pending litigation. Webb said, "The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indianapolis VA Medical Center cares deeply for every veteran we are privileged to serve, and we are committed to delivering the highest quality care."
If you have been hurt instead of healed by your physician contact a medical malpractice attorney to discuss your case. You need not suffer, oftentimes a jury will order a monetary award to cover your damages.