MIAMI -- Air Force veteran Robert Metzler says his life is ruined. His attorney says Metzler faces a future of exhaustion, loss of sexual companionship and the threat of cirrhosis or liver cancer. But the lawyer defending the Veterans Administration says Metzler might be cured of the underlying condition, hepatitis C, within a year.
The sharply contrasting opening statements were presented in U.S. District Court in Miami in a medical malpractice case filed against the VA. It's the first such case to go to trial after about 11,000 U.S. military veterans learned that colonoscopies they had at three VA hospitals, including Miami's, were performed with improperly cleaned equipment.
