Noteboom The Law Firm

Fayetteville VA Sued Again For Retaliatory Firing

September 14, 2010 - Dr. Jawal Suleman is a cardiologist working at the Martinsburg, West Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. He formally worked at the Fayetteville, North Carolina VA Medical Center and is currently suing the Fayetteville VA, among others. Suleman's suit claims officials at the Fayetteville VA Clinic are filing a malpractice report against him because of a complaint he filed while employed in the Fayetteville VA.  

If the VA files the report against Suleman with The National Practitioner Data Base (NPDB), it would raise "significant red flags" whenever Suleman applies for a job. A federal judge denied Suleman's emergency motion to bar the filing of the report.

The report Suleman is attempting to block focuses on a 77-year-old military veteran who died following receiving treatment in the Fayetteville VA facility. The veteran died the day after being admitted complaining of not being able to eat solid food, vomiting, and nausea. He underwent hernia surgery and was being kept for observation at the Fayetteville NA VA hospital when he passed away.  

The complaint blames the veteran's death on improper distribution of pain killer. Suleman claims he knew nothing about the veteran or his death until the VA listed him as the doctor assigned to that case in 2004.The medical records for this, however, are sketchy and not credible.

Suleman was re-credentialed with the Fayetteville VA twice following the incident. He insists the reports were being filed in retaliation for reporting a faulty standard of care with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2006. Suleman's claims are not the only ones filed against the Fayetteville VA, they are just the most recent in a series of comparable allegations filed by Fayetteville VA employees.