Sick Vietnam veteran sick over VA's contradictions
McCall.com
Paul Muschick
November 8, 2014
Peg Smedley wouldn't have retired five years ago if she didn't have it in writing that the government considered her to be totally and permanently disabled from her military service during the Vietnam War.
At the time, the Department of Veterans Affairs considered her to be 100 percent disabled from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
Those monthly benefits were enough to cover her expenses, so Smedley decided it was time to end her nursing career.
She was living comfortably until last December, when the VA told her it proposed to reduce her disability rating to only 10 percent, which would cut her benefits substantially. Smedley feared she could lose her Allentown home. She didn't understand how the government could do that, considering what it previously had told her.
"I retired thinking my benefits were permanent," she told me. "That's what permanent means."
The VA's poor and slow handling of benefits is a permanent source of aggravation for veterans. Smedley's beef is one of several I've investigated recently.
"I just cannot even fathom that they would make these huge mistakes and change someone's life so dramatically and not even care," Smedley told me last month.
I spoke with the VA on Thursday, and it acknowledged sending her incorrect information about the status of her benefits. The good news is the agency won't be reducing her benefits and has made them permanent, this time for real. The bad news is that happened because Smedley's doctor told the VA she'll battle cancer for the rest of her life.
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Showing posts with label non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Show all posts
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Monday, December 20, 2010
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
THE NEEDIEST CASES
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
By C. J. HUGHES
Published: December 19, 2010
Angled between the houseplants in Luis Perez’s high-rise apartment in Rockaway Beach, Queens, is a telescope aimed at surfers.
The views of them in the waves, along with the plants, help Mr. Perez, 59, feel somewhat connected to nature. He can no longer journey outside much — his immune system is too weakened by his illness, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which was found in his neck in December 2008 and has since spread to his stomach.
“The plants bring out beauty, you know what I mean?” Mr. Perez said on a recent afternoon, as waves crashed in the distance.
Yet to someone who used to go fishing often, and who would excitedly count the days until an annual camping trip to Hammonasset Beach State Park in Connecticut, ersatz wilderness might seem an offensive substitute for the real thing.
Another cruel twist is that Mr. Perez, a Vietnam War veteran who spent years working with suicidal teenagers, gang members and the developmentally disabled, is now in a position to need help himself.
Last spring, a doctor told Mr. Perez that he had to quit his job at Garfield Manor, a group home run by Catholic Charities in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Mr. Perez was a counselor there, helping residents with basic daily hygiene, as well as a floor-hockey coach for players vying for the Special Olympics.
Being in such close quarters with the 10 people living at Garfield put Mr. Perez at risk of infection, his doctor said. As it was, he wore a surgical mask to keep germs away on the A train, which he took to his hospital visits three times a week.
read more here
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
By C. J. HUGHES
Published: December 19, 2010
Angled between the houseplants in Luis Perez’s high-rise apartment in Rockaway Beach, Queens, is a telescope aimed at surfers.
The views of them in the waves, along with the plants, help Mr. Perez, 59, feel somewhat connected to nature. He can no longer journey outside much — his immune system is too weakened by his illness, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which was found in his neck in December 2008 and has since spread to his stomach.
“The plants bring out beauty, you know what I mean?” Mr. Perez said on a recent afternoon, as waves crashed in the distance.
Yet to someone who used to go fishing often, and who would excitedly count the days until an annual camping trip to Hammonasset Beach State Park in Connecticut, ersatz wilderness might seem an offensive substitute for the real thing.
Another cruel twist is that Mr. Perez, a Vietnam War veteran who spent years working with suicidal teenagers, gang members and the developmentally disabled, is now in a position to need help himself.
Last spring, a doctor told Mr. Perez that he had to quit his job at Garfield Manor, a group home run by Catholic Charities in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Mr. Perez was a counselor there, helping residents with basic daily hygiene, as well as a floor-hockey coach for players vying for the Special Olympics.
Being in such close quarters with the 10 people living at Garfield put Mr. Perez at risk of infection, his doctor said. As it was, he wore a surgical mask to keep germs away on the A train, which he took to his hospital visits three times a week.
read more here
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child
Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child
By Chris Cassidy and Julie Manganis
Staff writers
SALEM — The Salem mother charged with failing to give her 8-year-old son his cancer medications has a history of involvement with the Department of Social Services and police and lost custody of an older child, officials confirmed yesterday.
Kristen Anne LaBrie, 36, is also the mother of a 16-year-old child, her lawyer, Kevin James, said during her arraignment Monday on a child endangerment charge.
The older child was removed from LaBrie's custody at the request of DSS several years ago and now lives with a relative, a DSS spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Allison Goodwin said she could not go into details of the earlier case and could not comment on why the older child was removed.
LaBrie has pleaded not guilty in the current case and is free on personal recognizance. Her lawyer has said she denies the charges.
LaBrie is accused of failing to give her son Jeremy Fraser his chemotherapy at home and canceling appointments for hospital treatments for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prosecutors allege that as a result Jeremy's condition has declined and is now terminal.
Police and prosecutors have not offered a motive and say they've never seen a case like this one.
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speechless.
By Chris Cassidy and Julie Manganis
Staff writers
SALEM — The Salem mother charged with failing to give her 8-year-old son his cancer medications has a history of involvement with the Department of Social Services and police and lost custody of an older child, officials confirmed yesterday.
Kristen Anne LaBrie, 36, is also the mother of a 16-year-old child, her lawyer, Kevin James, said during her arraignment Monday on a child endangerment charge.
The older child was removed from LaBrie's custody at the request of DSS several years ago and now lives with a relative, a DSS spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Allison Goodwin said she could not go into details of the earlier case and could not comment on why the older child was removed.
LaBrie has pleaded not guilty in the current case and is free on personal recognizance. Her lawyer has said she denies the charges.
LaBrie is accused of failing to give her son Jeremy Fraser his chemotherapy at home and canceling appointments for hospital treatments for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prosecutors allege that as a result Jeremy's condition has declined and is now terminal.
Police and prosecutors have not offered a motive and say they've never seen a case like this one.
click post title for more
speechless.
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