Doctors believe Roy and Janet Palmer could have spent another decade together. More yearly trips to the Fryeburg Fair, more nights spent watching “NCIS” and NASCAR races, more spontaneous day trips and visits with family.

Janet Palmer thought they’d still have that future when she dropped her 69-year-old husband off at the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta five years ago for abnormal stomach pain. The U.S. Army veteran died less than a month later as a result of medical negligence, a judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Stacy Neumann awarded Palmer $1.3 million in damages for the VA’s role in her husband’s death.

“Janet and Roy both met each other later in life. And both loved each other deeply,” said her attorney, Travis Brennan. “They had plans for the future and expected to have many more years together, and that was suddenly and abruptly stolen from Janet back in 2020.”

Roy Palmer arrived at Togus on April 6, 2020, suffering unusual and severe abdominal pain, according to court records. He was immediately admitted and, over the next three days, received extremely high doses of pain medication by several doctors who didn’t seem to communicate with each other.

He was given so much hydromorphone, a type of opioid, that staff had to override an automatic alert in their electronic medical system, according to court records, and he was prescribed conflicting medications that are known to increase the risk of overdose. He also was being held in an overflow unit where he wasn’t closely monitored.

“This case highlights a system failure at the Togus VA, where several different providers expected other providers to do things and didn’t take responsibility themselves for checking or changing things,” Brennan said in a phone interview Thursday. “And that’s a constant theme we see when patients receive poor medical care at hospitals. We often see a system where multiple providers see patients, and no one is actually managing the patient’s care from a 30,000-foot view.”

‘CONSCIOUS SUFFERING’

Roy Palmer suffered severe brain damage after overdosing and going into respiratory cardiac arrest on April 9, 2020, records show. He was transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he spent more than 20 days ebbing in and out of consciousness. Doctors told the court they believe he struggled so hard to breathe that he probably thought he was drowning.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Palmer’s family and friends weren’t able to visit or comfort him. His wife was only allowed to see him once before making the difficult decision to move him to hospice a day before he died.

“While it is true that Mr. Palmer was treated with pain medication such that his physical pain was neither severe nor enduring, the concept of conscious suffering includes more than just physical pain but also the mental anguish that accompanies the realities of the injury,” Neumann wrote in her order.

“Prior to entering the Togus VA for abdominal pain and ultimately being rendered unconscious by the government’s negligence, Mr. Palmer could walk, talk, eat and engage in all his normal activities of daily life,” she added. “The next time he regained consciousness, he was at an entirely different hospital, intubated and hooked up to machines in the ICU, and unable to communicate. Mr. Palmer was isolated from Mrs. Palmer and all other family and friends throughout the rest of his conscious life.”

For Roy Palmer’s suffering, Neumann included $175,000 in damages. She then ordered the government to pay his widow more than $450,000 in economic losses, figuring that’s what he would have received in income had he lived another 11 years.

Neumann’s decision also included $750,000 for what Janet Palmer has lost without his companionship.

SHOWING UP

Janet Palmer declined to be interviewed through her attorney. Neumann described the widow’s testimony at trial, including the fact that she still carries a picture of the couple on their wedding day “so that Mr. Palmer is always close to her.”

The couple began dating in 2009 and married in 2016. They lived together in Buxton, where Roy Palmer had lived since he was 7, according to his obituary.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine, which represented the VA, declined to comment on the ruling Thursday. The hospital admitted to the negligence before trial after going through the legal discovery process, but disagreed on how much Janet Palmer was owed. 

Parties aren’t allowed to advocate for a specific amount of damages in federal court. Neumann’s decision to award Janet Palmer $750,000 met the legal limit on these kinds of damages under the law at the time. (Lawmakers increased the cap to $1 million for deaths after 2023, but that doesn’t apply retroactively.)

The VA didn’t respond to a request to discuss the ruling or any changes they’ve made to patient care since Palmer’s death.

Brennan acknowledged most facilities have closed-door “peer reviews” to address these issues.

“Our hope is that this type of process would have occurred here,” Brennan said. “What we hope for, and certainly what Janet hopes for, is that (when) veterans like Roy need medical care in this country, they will receive quality medical care.”

“Our veterans really show up and put their lives on the line for this country. And they deserve quality medical care when they need it, and that should be provided to them. When Roy showed up and he needed that quality care, unfortunately, the system let him down.”