Army Times: Bill would let troops sue for medical malpractice
In the face of the Supreme Court’s Feres doctrine, soldiers can’t sue for malpractice. Rick Mays in the Army Times highlights:
A New York congressman is hunting for cosponsors for a bill that would let service members sue the military for medical malpractice.
The Carmelo Rodriquez Military Medical Accountability Act, introduced by Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey, is named for a Marine sergeant who died last year from skin cancer after what Hinchey said was a series of mistakes by military medical personnel.
Rodriquez, who was 29 when he died, had a melanoma on his buttocks that had been misdiagnosed as a birthmark or wart by military doctors in Iraq, Hinchey said, citing medical records his office obtained from the Army when the Marine’s family sought his help.
Rodriquez ended up having three surgeries, plus radiation and chemotherapy treatments, but the care came too late, after the cancer had spread, Hinchey said.
His legislation would reverse a 1950 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, known as the Feres Doctrine, that prohibits lawsuits for medical negligence that harms service members.
Hopefully the Feres decision will be overridden by the Military Medical Accountability Act, so that military medical doctors can be held accountable and our troops can have better military care.