Med Mal News

The federal government recently settled, in the amount of $800,000, a suit brought by the survivors of a U.S. Veteran whose death allegedly stemmed from the Phoenix Veterans Administration medical center's (VA) failure to render him the care indicated for his heart condition symptoms. The widow of Leonard Kitzinger allged that her husband, then in his early 60s, first sought care from the VA for his chest pains in February 2011. At that time, Kitzinger's blood pressure was a high 181/85, his electrocardiogram was abnormal and a chest X-ray indicated he was experiencing hardening and narrowing of the arteries. His cholesterol levels were also high, and he was a smoker.

Despite all these red flags, Kitzinger was sent home without medication and without a referral for further evaluation or treatment. Because he was still in pain a week later, Kitzinger returned for evaluation and was diagnosed with reflux issues and given medicine for that and for high cholesterol. No cardiac workup was ordered at that time. Six months later, still suffering from the same symptoms, Kitzinger went back to the VA, where a Physician Assistant referred him to a gastroenterologist and suggested he undergo a stress test to rule out cardiac causes for his distress. The follow-up consultation request she wrote indicated that Kitzinger should be scheduled for the “next available” stress test. Instead, he was given an appointment seven weeks later. In the intervening period, Kitzinger suffered a massive heart attack, resulting in brain death. His wife consented to end life support four days later.