Misdiagnosis and statute of limitations

Matthew

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Matthew
This showed up in the KC paper today.

A pilot was diagnosed by his VA doctor with bipolar disorder. Airline fired him, years later his new psychiatrist says he is NOT bipolar. Lawsuits begin, latest one is dismissed because statute of limitations expired.

No details on any FAA comments, or what he tried to do about it in the meantime.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article195538839.html
 
Yikes...

I have seen commercials where the spokesman ask the question... "Were you delivered incorrectly at birth..?? Call us and we will sue your doctor for all the problems you have had in your life time..."

I never thought that there would be a statute of limitations for a lifelong diagnosis.....
 
Nutshell: Goes to VA for both physical and psychiatric disorders. Psychiatrist claims Bilpolar, tells him it's forever. This is repeated by various VA docs over the next decade. New doc says, hey you don't have bipolar. File alleging malpractice against the first set of doctors.

He wanted $35MM (plus interest, costs, and legal fees, by the way).

Hard to see why the first suit was pulled out. Looks like they went to a mediator. Unfortunately, those stipulation agreements don't have much information in them.

You've got a real short window to file federal cases on administrative denails, and he went more than twice what is allowed (even taking the more friendly to the plaintiff tolling into account, which the judge didn't make an opinion on or not). There were a couple of other straws grasped at (the attempt to bring a Missouri law into which clearly doesn't apply).

What happens when you want to sue the government is you have to file a claim with the agency first. Once they deny you, you have only six months to file a federal suit. Even subtracting out the time that the prior suit was pending, he was still at 14 months.

I'm not sure why you expect the FAA to have anything to say about this. They weren't a party. It's not clear if he attempted to restore his medical or even if given the non-bipolar diagnosis by the new VA doc, that he was even eligible.
 
I'm not sure why you expect the FAA to have anything to say about this. They weren't a party. It's not clear if he attempted to restore his medical or even if given the non-bipolar diagnosis by the new VA doc, that he was even eligible.

Wasn't really expecting anything fom FAA, just noted there was no comment in the article. I don't know what kind of process he tried going through with FAA while he was grounded.

The story doesn't say whether his new doc is VA.
 
The filing with the federal court said it was a new VA psych. It took me a minute to find the case on line because he didn't file it in Kansas. Fortunately, the judge's name was in the news article and I was able to find out he was sitting on the Western District of Missouri.
 
Thanks for the update.

Speculation: First doc says "bipolar". He loses his medical, loses his job, loses his confidence. Subsequent docs see his diagnosis, have no reason to question it, so they reinforce that diagnosis by continuing to treat him for bipolar. He figures he's grounded forever and doesn't attempt to get his medical back. Latest doc says, "nope, not bipolar".

Maybe his medical wasn't denied, only expired? Could it have been revoked? Maybe he can get it back now if he wants to, but his airline days might be over for good.
 
Nothing in the filing addresses him wanting to fly again. He was asking for $35MM for the malpractice.
Frankly, I doubt seriously he'd have prevailed on that amount even if he had filed it in a timely fashion, but you can never tell with juries.
 
I am currently trying on behalf of a fellow in this situation. It’s very, very hard. I’m “not qualified” to say but, IMO No way is the guy (my guy) bipolar.....he’s been stable and steady for >10 years...
 
So what does it take to convince the FAA of a misdiagnosis? (Since we've now come around to that topic...)

I have an extremely likely misdiagnosis in my history too (NOT psychiatric)... and I had a letter of eligibility that for many years kept me flying without annual imaging to satisfy the FAA. Then they changed their minds, I changed employers (and therefore insurance), and in the end I had to document annually, with expen$ive imaging paid for out of pocket, that my "condition" hadn't progressed - when in reality it has not shown up on imaging in at least 30 years, and maybe never. I have had specialists tell me to my face that the dx is bogus, but no one will put that in writing for the FAA, since it is possible to have it and yet for it to show up on imaging only infrequently. For that and other reasons, I'm now flying on BasicMed, but this is the kind of issue that's grounded many pilots in the pre-BM days and induced some to give up flying altogether.
 
So what does it take to convince the FAA of a misdiagnosis? (Since we've now come around to that topic...)

I have an extremely likely misdiagnosis in my history too (NOT psychiatric)... and I had a letter of eligibility that for many years kept me flying without annual imaging to satisfy the FAA. Then they changed their minds, I changed employers (and therefore insurance), and in the end I had to document annually, with expen$ive imaging paid for out of pocket, that my "condition" hadn't progressed - when in reality it has not shown up on imaging in at least 30 years, and maybe never. I have had specialists tell me to my face that the dx is bogus, but no one will put that in writing for the FAA, since it is possible to have it and yet for it to show up on imaging only infrequently. For that and other reasons, I'm now flying on BasicMed, but this is the kind of issue that's grounded many pilots in the pre-BM days and induced some to give up flying altogether.
I depends on the condition....
 
I remember when he was shot down by the Japs. Outrageous that happened. More outrageous what the VA doc did to him.
 
wow. I probably followed it when it happened because of the local connection, but had forgotten all about it.
 
I depends on the condition....
I missed this reply last week... well it's irrelevant really since for other reasons I will probably never try to go back to 3rd class... but the dx was MVP. FAA wanted resting echocardiograms annually.
 
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