The Military Times reports, “A bipartisan group of House lawmakers announced new legislation to do away with the legal rules protecting the Defense Department from medical malpractice lawsuits.” House Armed Services Committee Chair Jackie Speier said, “We’re not talking about special treatment. We’re talking about giving service members the same rights as their spouses, federal workers, and even prisoners.” The bill would create “an exemption to the Feres Doctrine, a 69-year-old legal precedent barring that legal action.” It “would not cover any cases related to combat operations, and would only apply to mistakes that occur at major military hospitals and clinics.” Additionally, “plaintiffs bringing lawsuits could not receive compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees would be capped under existing federal laws.” However, “Defense Department officials have said undoing the precedent would upset the current military compensation and benefits system.”
Military reports the bill is named for Army Sgt. First Class Richard Stayskal, who testified before the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee on Tuesday. He currently isn’t able to sue the military health system for missing his terminal lung cancer. Also testifying were “Alexis Witt, the widow of an airman who suffered brain damage in 2003 following an appendectomy, and Rebecca Lipe, a former Air Force judge advocate and attorney who was injured by ill-fitting body armor that prompted a series of unnecessary surgeries and eventually led to infertility.”
Also covering this story are Federal News Network, Stars And Stripes, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, NC, and WJZY-TV.
Feres prevents the Army from being held accountable for allowing preventable harm. Army Times reports Capt. Katie Blanchard “wants people to know that Feres isn’t only preventing medical malpractice lawsuits – it also blocks service members from holding accountable a chain of command who fails to protect them from preventable harm.” Blanchard was doused with gasoline and set alight by an Army civilian working under Blanchard that she had warned “for months before her attack…was menacing her and she believed he would try to kill her.” Blanchard sued for the cost of “expenses like childcare during medical procedures, and necessities like a special moisturizer to keep her extremely delicate grafted skin comfortable, over the rest of her lifetime,” but is facing Feres as an obstacle.
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
