Open Letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

With Memorial Day fast approaching and the 3rd anniversary of that ECHCS email update, and in anticipation of our informal review now awaiting scheduling under the 1151 claim, the script I expect to formally convey at that time is given below for your reading pleasure:

Dear VA,

Please allow me to apologize in advance for speaking frankly about this matter, because it affects me profoundly, and that is the only way I can talk about it. And thank you for the opportunity to clear up some sort of fundamental oversight or misunderstanding about this claim.

I never recovered from my left hip replacement in January, 2019. I’ve lost count of how many VA people I’ve told that since 2019. Nor have I previously complained about, or received diagnosis or treatment for any sort of lumbar condition from anyone, VA or otherwise, before then. A year later on February 22nd 2020, L4-5 was fused by Dr. Edward Donner, to remove a leaking disc marginally attached to the annulus from which it was torn. I have no idea where the notion of degenerative disc disease in my lumbar came from. Last year a C&P examiner noted among other things, a lack of ankylosis at C6-7, typically associated with that condition the VA now asserts in this malpractice claim denial. I have not been tested for the HLA-B27 gene, so this administrative conclusion appears to be another presumptive non-diagnosis, with no medical basis. The deteriorating conditions on either end of my spine certainly are issues, but osteoarthritis wasn’t the cause, and it’s not the leading factor now.

With the exception of my still naturally-functional knees rated at Air Force retirement age 45, now suffering nerve pain, all my currently problematic orthopedic issues including the hips, stem either directly or indirectly from injuries. My first claim for the loss of my right hip was precipitated by a motorcycle accident in 1986. The early onset of osteoarthritis claiming my hips as their first victims was an indirect result of that event. The C-spine was another vehicle-related accident, differing largely in it’s immediate manifestation. The knees and mid/lower spine were my only major body parts still functioning as intended, not yet sufficiently damaged from injurious traumas to require surgery before 2019.

A lumbar disc was torn open on January 8th 2019 by Dr. Andrew Park, in a fashion at least an order of magnitude greater than what happened at C6-7 in 2001. Fusion surgery to repair the leaking disc followed an eleven month-long fight for diagnosis with providers at the ECHCS VA facility in Aurora. For some reason they just flatly refused to diagnose me (re: Dr. Knight). What if anything was ever done about that problem remains in question. The abusive, negligent mistreatment I was subjected to in that denial-after-the-fact process is unforgivable.

I’m sure Dr. Park did his best, and the new hip is great, but pointing to that tear already being there calls for an explanation as to why I never complained about it before, why it was never called out in an MRI until the one I demanded in June 2019, and how every person who’s ever done a day’s real work in their lives has any number of benign annular tears up and down their spine. How a guy with a torn/leaking lumbar ever became a hip replacement candidate in the first place might be a good starting point, if the history of that L4-5 tear is in question. Much more pressure that day, and I probably would have been totally paralyzed.

Alarming new lumbar symptoms emerged the day I stopped pain med two weeks after the hip surgery. Dr. Park might remember exactly what I told him about that the day I finally managed to corner him, demanding new imaging after waiting for three hours. Dr. Sluder, my PCP at the time, told me “sometimes it just takes longer to get over an operation like this.” That is not the worst of the bullshittery I have been subjected to in this process, but I have only so much time here today. My pleas for help were systematically ignored while I was sent on the run-around.

I am a sentient being with intimate knowledge of my body, betrayed by the system I trusted to care for me. I know what happened, who did it, where it happened, exactly when it happened, and how it has left me crippled, and my life turned upside down in this ongoing travesty. After holding a Top Secret security clearance for 25 years I never imagined my candor coming into question in any official government capacity. Seems like that old accountability issue cropping up everywhere these days. The fact I was repeatedly steered away from and in fact, directly denied diagnosis (re: Iliev, Sylvestri, Brinkis, Knight, et al) was pure negligence.

Medical records need corrected and updated to reflect the true cause of my current condition. That goes for the topic of this claim as well. I don’t know where the degenerative disc nonsense came from, probably the same sort who tried to adjust my c-spine appeal in the government’s favor. This claim is for the malpractice suffered on January 8th 2019 in Aurora Colorado, resulting in a leaking disc requiring lumbar fusion to repair – period. The records need backed by a written mea culpa from the Director of that facility for the way I was treated during an 11-month long failure to diagnose. I also want a face-to-face meeting with Dr’s Park, Brinkis, their boss and whoever that Director happens to be whenever we get around to it. I have a few questions about some post-op protocols that may or may not be in effect there.

To Mr. Arnold Tovar, the person who managed to get me on the phone one day after my complaints reached The Secretary the 1st time: His response to this issue ending our conversation was “I know what you want…” followed by a long rhetorical pause. THAT should have been a foregone conclusion the moment Dr. Park pushed a little too hard. I came home from the hospital with a black-and-blue left foot. Seemed odd at first, making more sense later after the medication wore off and festering set it. They broke my back and left me to rot. The look on that resident’s face who came to check on me the morning after a 180+BP breakthrough episode said it all. Too bad I was too drugged up to know any better at the time.

Then they refused to diagnose me. Imagine that. Things were obviously done so I would not be diagnosed. A comprehensive look at the record clearly shows that to any cold-eye reader. This type of mistreatment will not be considered acceptably de-riguer, and those responsible will be held accountable. Brinkis’ vague referral after I told him what was wrong with me made a great red herring for the first couple spine guys. Knight spent more time looking for needle tracks than she did trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I flushed out another one in Loveland upon arrival, but got lucky with Donner, because I was at the end of my rope. Imagine living a year with a festering back injury on top of a fresh hip replacement with NOBODY willing to admit there was anything wrong with you. Withholding diagnosis like that was torture.

My repeated response to anyone questioning any aspect of this claim or the veracity of any statement I have ever made about it in any format: What 60 year-old doesn’t have normal low back pain? My mid-lower back was probably the only remaining portion of my skeleton not seriously damaged or degraded by injuries before 2019. The Social Security Administration now asserts that a former tech worker such as myself is not disabled because they can still sit in front of a computer. I imagine if the government had their way, I’d still be in front of their computer in a wheelchair. Being partially paralyzed throughout the entire right side of my body now has me starting to envy some of the new prosthetic limb tech – at least they can move about more-or-less at will.

VA bureaucrats need to spend a few minutes reading the true account of what happened to me, if you haven’t already. It’s a lot easier to understand and much shorter than the medical records, which are well cited. I hope this provides a good example to help future victims. I could see what they were trying to do after Brinkis’ referral, so I wrote it all down. I’m still waiting for somebody to explain how the right side of my body went out following a left hip replacement. Let me know when you figure it out.

Sincerely,

Paul D. Shaffer, MSgt, USAF (ret.)

P.S. CSI gets a pass, only because they were misled – but the insurance shakedown and phytocannaharvaresia were things. Props to the Colonel and his crew. The right hip seems to have held up well under two years of his successor’s abuse. It’s well shielded with the hard limp I have on it now.

(Submitted to the Board of Veterans Appeals 15 JUN 21)