FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — The Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks said 14 patients were misdiagnosed by a former pathologist.
The VA said more than 21,000 cases have been reviewed of the more than 33,000 since they contracted outside labs to review the cases back in June.
“It`s sickening, and it will kill me to find out that he could’ve been saved, that he was misdiagnosed. We have five beautiful daughters who have been without their dad the entire time,” Jackson said.
Jamie Jackson’s husband died in 2013 after a battle with cancer.
She got one of those letters saying he may have been misdiagnosed multiple times by the now fired pathologist, Dr. Robert Morris Levy.
She feels like the VA could do more.
“I did get some answers today that I was happy to get. I work for the government to, so I know there is a lot of red tape and overhead, but I don’t think they are doing all they can do. This process should be a whole lot quicker,” she said.
The outside labs still have more than 12,000 of those cases to review, but the VA said they will still complete them by the end of 2018.
Linda Alderson said she wasn’t shocked when she got the call that her dad, who died in 2012 at the VA may have been misdiagnosed.
She said they encouraged her dad to get treatment outside of the VA system.
“When he was finally approved he was so excited because he thought he was getting the best care. He thought the VA had the best specialist around. He actually gave up his healthcare through the University of Arkansas to be able to do the VA care here because he thought he was getting the best,” she said.
The VA so far has contracts with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.
They are still working on getting contracts with other outside labs.
