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Thousands of veterans may have been exposed to several diseases at the Cochran VA Medical
Center. Andy Crouppen of Brown and Crouppen joins us to talk more about this alarming
topic really. Andy, thanks for your time.
Any time.
So we know that this is a dirty dental equipment issue, and that patients were treated with
equipment that was not properly sterilized. That is what we thus far.
Right. Right.
So does it appear that Cochran knew some time before they sent letters to the veterans?
Yeah, I mean this whole thing is just so troubling. To take dental equipment that you know has
the potential to carry disease, and to treat it like it is a knife with peanut butter on
it and just rinse it off and thing that is okay. The whole thing just makes you sick.
These are veterans. They knew in March that there was a problem. They say they wanted
to kind of figure out the scope of the problem before they let everybody know... and waited
several months before they then let people know. So that means if somebody is running
around out there exposed, they could be exposing other people during that time period. They
should have known immediately.
And we are clear that it is not that they did not have procedures in place. They did
have a sterilization procedure that as we understand it was simply not being used.
Yeah. That is what is even scarier. If it was just some employee that misunderstood
the rules. But this is a hospital facility that did not understand how to properly sterilize
things to protect the patients -- the veterans, who are their patients -- who they are treating.
Is there a liability because they knew and then months passed, and then they sent out
letters to the veterans about 2000?
It depends on what happens. There would potentially be liability. Let's say someone was exposed,
and then exposed to their spouse. You know, lets say that they had contracted ***, and
now their spouse has ***. During that time period that they knew and didn't tell people,
you know there could be some liability there for others outside of the clinic. I am not
sure that there is liability just for the lack of information if there is no further
harm.
We have said this many times about our country: We are rather litigious. People sue over any
thing, but in this case, your law firm -- why would any law firm; yours is interested in
it, why would any law firm -- be interested in possibly helping veterans who maybe were
exposed.
The country is, I think in some people's minds, very litigious, but I think in this situation
you are not going to find many people who disagree with what we are doing here. You
know, these are people who served their country and now are going to get medical treatment
that the government is providing for them because of that service, and exposing them...
you know, the perils of war... they escape that, but now...
they come home and get a root canal and get exposed, possibly.
So what is more noble than helping the people who helped us make the country what it is
today. Most of these people are 100% disabled because of their service in the war.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. This is just terrible.
This issue will continue for some months to come. If you have a legal question for Brown
and Crouppen, e-mail us.