Steve Cooper, an 18-year Army veteran, is dying from severe prostate cancer. While this type of cancer is typically curable, Cooper alleges that his condition is terminal because the VA Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz. delayed his diagnosis and treatment for two years.

Cooper is suing the Phoenix Veterans Administration for $50 million in damages for delaying his urological appointments and then providing him negligent care. According to the suit, the former soldier started experiencing stomach pain in Jan. 2011, but it took until Jan. 2012 for him to see a nurse practitioner at the Phoenix VA hospital. The practitioner said that Cooper’s prostate was large and asymmetrical–red flags for prostate cancer–but didn’t order any tests.

Cooper spent another year trying to see a VA doctor, but when he finally attended an appointment in Dec. 2012, it was two years too late. A biopsy showed that Cooper had stage-four metastatic prostate cancer.

Greg Patton, Cooper’s attorney, said that the VA could have stopped the growth of his client’s cancer if it had bothered to give him an appointment.

“If caught early, it’s completely treatable,” Patton said. “Letting it go up to two years like the VA did allowed it to spread. Now it’s incurable. He is facing a terminal diagnosis of prostate cancer at the age of 44 — all of which is preventable. It’s a horrible case.”

In May 2014, it looked like the surgical removal of his prostate and infected pelvic lymph nodes had cured his condition. “Cancer didn’t kill me, but the VA nearly did,” Cooper triumphantly said to CBS.

If Patton’s words are anything to go by, cancer may still claim Cooper’s life after all.

“Unfortunately, this VA system and their health care providers just took it all away from him,” Patton add. “They took his life.”