One vet's VA treatment in Indianapolis: Pain, suffering, and now a lawsuit

Tony Yeary had trouble urinating, so he went to see a doctor at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis.

What happened once he got there in May 2012 is recounted, in gruesome detail, in a lawsuit that the 60-year-old Marine veteran filed against the VA last week in federal court in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis resident's suit describes a medical experience with scenes that harken to medieval times: Little or no painkillers used during a painful medical procedure. Brute force from doctors trying to insert objects in a body cavity. A blood-spattered patient left to fend for himself.

The lawsuit comes as the VA system nationally is under renewed fire from patients and others for disregarding patient safety, maintaining secret waiting lists for patients seeking care and handing out bonuses to top administrators with little connection to job performance.

In Yeary's case, he was treated by a VA resident doctor who couldn't manage the routine task of inserting a wire scope into the patient's penis. Yeary began bleeding and was in "excruciating pain," according to his lawsuit.

"Mr. Yeary only had a small amount of local anesthesia to the tip of his penis," the lawsuit says.

When the doctor, resident urologist Dr. Nick Wei-En Liu, failed to insert the scope after several "jabs," the lawsuit says a second doctor, Rahul Dev Mehan, arrived, and the two worked for more than an hour to force dilators into Yeary to open up his urinary tract, so a catheter could be inserted.

"At one point, sweating profusely, Dr. Liu commented to Dr. Mehan, 'This is the Cadillac of dilations,'" according to the lawsuit's account.

Yeary's bad day was hardly over. He was left alone in a hospital room, splattered "in urine and blood," until he straggled to the door and asked for something he could use to clean himself off. The lawsuit says he was then sent home without any pain medication but had to return that night to the emergency room for an injection to ease his pain.

The next month, Yeary returned for surgery to clear out the urinary blockage. The lawsuit says Yeary met with Mehan, who told him he, not Liu, would do the surgery.

"Mr. Yeary ... informed Dr. Mehan emphatically that he did not want Dr. Liu to touch him," the lawsuit says.

But when Yeary awoke from surgery, he saw Liu standing at his bedside, asking whether Yeary was in any pain. The VA doctor then informed Yeary that he had accidentally punctured Yeary's prostate and possibly his rectum during surgery, the lawsuit says.

"Mr. Yeary was understandably quite angry," the lawsuit says.

After a three-night stay in the hospital, Yeary was released. But today he suffers "permanent scarring and damage, continuing pain and suffering, and urinary incontinence" from the VA procedures, according to the lawsuit. He is now being treated by an IU Health doctor, the lawsuit says, and will require another surgery, called an appendicovesicostomy, to create an opening in his abdomen to use to constantly drain the bladder.

The seven-page lawsuit accuses the VA of "medical battery" and asks for unspecified damages.

Yeary also filed an administrative claim for damages with the VA, but it was denied, the lawsuit says. An appeal of the denial is pending.

Yeary's attorneys at RobergeLaw in Carmel did not respond to requests for comment. Reached at home, Yeary, who is retired, said he was told by his attorneys not to comment on his case. He said he is a 10-year veteran of the Marines, where he reached the rank of staff sergeant E6.

Local VA spokeswoman Julie Webb said the VA can't comment on pending litigation or Yeary's case because of patient privacy rules. But she said, "the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indianapolis VA Medical Center cares deeply for every veteran we are privileged to serve, and we are committed to delivering the highest quality care."

Liu, an Indiana University School of Medicine resident, declined to comment on the suit, said Margie Smith-Simmons, a spokeswoman for the school.

The accounts of patient-care problems at VA facilities across the country, including dozens of patients who reportedly died because of treatment delays, have led to calls for the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

The VA serves 7 million veterans. Its $150 billion budget and 300,000 employees make it the federal government's second-largest department, after the Pentagon.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.