13,000 North California Veteran Claims Ignored, Say Whistleblowers

Five whistleblowers at a Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) regional office in Oakland, California say that more than 13,000 veteran requests for disability benefits were deliberately—and illegally—not replied to, reports CBS News.

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/02/25/oakland-whistleblowers-say-veterans-being-denied-benefits

The Veterans Benefits Administration is the arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that provides disability compensation and other entitlements to former military members and their families.

Claimants are allowed to file what’s known as an informal claim with the VBA in order to establish an effective date for benefits. By law, the VBA must respond with a formal application to the claimant, who then has one year to complete the application. If the veteran’s claim is approved, he or she is entitled to a retroactive lump sum payment based on the effective date established by the informal claim.

But according to CBS, the Oakland VBA office ignored more than 13,000 informal claims received between 1996 and 2009. When a team was assigned to process those claims two year ago, supervisors told team members to mark them “no action necessary”.

One whistleblower, Rustyann Brown, said she voiced concerns over the claims and was taken off the project.

“We were getting letters from elderly veterans and from widows who were literally at the end of their life, begging for help,” Brown said. “The VA didn’t help them. The VA didn’t care about them. They took [the claims], they put them in a file, and they stuffed them away.”

Brown says that many of the veterans were owed money. At the very least, they were owed an answer from the VA.

Report Underscores Importance of Having VA Claims Representative

The VA’s recent history of claims mismanagement is one reason why veterans and their families should work with an experienced, VA-accredited claims representative.

Rather than filing an informal claim with the VA, your best chance of a successful benefits application lies in submitting all necessary documents at one time (known as a Fully Developed Claim, or FDC). A claims representative will make sure that all paperwork and evidence requirements needed to obtain VA benefits are properly filed and let you know what to expect next in the application process.

A claims representative helps not only veterans but also their survivors. In some cases, the spouses and children of deceased veterans are not even aware that they are entitled to benefits.

The CBS report describes how Dorrie Stafford, whose husband’s claim was ignored by the Oakland VBA, didn’t realize there was such a thing as widow benefits. These benefits include things like help with burial expenses, monthly compensation, and educational assistance.

And veterans themselves may not be aware that having an asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma or lung cancer can entitle them to disability compensation.

Veterans and survivors can find out whether they qualify for disability compensation and get started with the application process using our VA benefits guide.

Please keep in mind that receiving VA benefits does not disqualify you from filing a lawsuit against the asbestos companies responsible for your asbestos exposure.

If you have questions about benefits or applying for them, or you want to know more about an asbestos lawsuit, please contact Belluck & Fox.

You served your country. Now we are here to help you.

Resilience Can Help Patients and Families Come Back Stronger

Ask Jennifer: What Mesothelioma Symptoms Did Your Father Have?

It seems like people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma all have a different story as to how their symptoms appeared. For my Dad, it began in the Summer of 2011, when he started having trouble catching his breath. He chalked it up to the extreme heat that we had that year, continued working and didn’t miss a beat.

His difficulty breathing continued to get more severe. He said he knew that there was something really wrong when we were walking outside in the Fall and he had to stop and take a break. He began to lose weight and was unbearably tired all of the time.

Because of his exhaustion, his personality even began to change. His usually unshakable, bubbly demeanor gave way to one of concern and fatigue. He would go to work, come home and take care of his ailing mother, and that was it. This man who was always ready to go was now increasingly becoming a homebody.

By the time Dad was finally diagnosed, he had lost around 30 pounds. He was struggling to work and continue on with daily activities. Once he had his pleurectomy, on February 15, 2012, he seemed like a different person. The lining of his lung was removed, and he became more like his old self immediately, having almost a new lease on life.

Everyone has a varying story with their symptoms and treatment, but this is the experience my family went through. We are thankful that he was correctly diagnosed and treated so quickly by amazing doctors and medical professionals.

Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.

Mesothelioma Nurse Encourages Others to Reach Out After a Tragedy

Isolation is a problem in the society we live in – we are all busy and we lose touch with each other. Being buried in our day to day lives is overwhelming, and at times, too much. Loss and grief can overtake us.

Last month a tragedy occurred at Brigham and Women’s Hospital when a man killed a young, brilliant, father and surgeon. How can something like this happen?

By all reports the shooter’s family was just as shocked as everyone else – something that was totally out of character for him. Grief seemed to have played a part in this senseless tragedy. Dr Michael Davidson had operated on the shooter’s mother in the late fall. She was being transferred to a rehab facility when she became ill and was admitted to another hospital where she then died.

What drove the man to blame the doctor who had tried to help his mother to kill him and then himself? We will never know what happened in his mind to lead to the events of that cold January morning, but the effects of this act have shattered a young family and left a toll on all that knew the 44-year-old doctor.

When diagnosed with mesothelioma, you and your family have to confront what none of us want to- the fact that we are all mortal. The people who have dedicated their professional lives to finding a cure, advancing treatment and studying are here to help. Although treatment does not always go the way we want, it is not someone’s fault when it fails.

Look around at your family and friends. Reach out to someone who you think might be having a hard time. Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them.

A young family is now without their beloved husband, father. His children will grow up without him. A senseless and tragic loss.

Nurses and Author Team Up to Enhance Healing in Mesothelioma Patients

Mesothelioma patients often feel like they have lost control of their lives and health once they are diagnosed. On the contrary, according to one author who has dedicated her career to helping patients influence their own healing, patients have tremendous control over their cancer journey. They just need the skills to shift from feeling fear to feeling relaxed and peaceful.

Peggy Huddleston, psychotherapist and author of Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide of Mind-Body Techniques, received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and has spent over 30 years researching the mind-body relationship. She ultimately developed a technique that harnesses “positive emotions and the human spirit” to speed healing.

“A person’s capacity for reducing pain is profound,” said Huddleston in an interview with MesotheliomaHelp. “When a patient learns to relax, he or she can significantly reduce both physical pain and emotional pain.”

Expert Insight

Peggy Huddleston

“I have a passion for seeing just how much patients can influence their own healing.”

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Huddleston’s five-step process involves relaxation, visualization, asking friends and family to wrap them in a “Blanket of Love,” and healing statements spoken by the patient’s medical team. Huddleston says benefits to patients include less anxiety before surgery, less pain after surgery resulting in 25-50 percent less use of pain medication, and faster recovery.

Impressed Nurses Learn Huddleston’s Technique

While caring for a surgical patient, Lisa Hyde-Barrett, a mesothelioma nurse with more than 25 years of experience, realized there was something “special” about the woman. She was positive and relaxed, and her husband was equally calm. Impressed by her attitude, Lisa asked her how she did it. The woman said she purchased Huddleston’s book, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster, and then talked with her by phone for a personal, one hour workshop.

Intrigued by the patient’s outlook and recovery, Hyde-Barrett recruited co-worker Eleanor Ericson to join her at a two-day training offered by Huddleston that certifies medical professionals who want to use her techniques for patient care. The two nurses, who work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and provide their expertise to the mesothelioma community through the “Nurse’s Corner” on MesotheliomaHelp.org, quickly saw the benefits of Huddleston’s techniques for mesothelioma patients.

“I have seen a lot during my career, and Peggy Huddleston’s method works,” says Hyde-Barrett.

“There are tons of research that says you need to have your head in the game before surgery- there is really no down side to this,” says Ericson.

The two are now both certified to offer Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster workshops to patients and are working with Huddleston to bring the workshop to more hospitals in an effort to improve the patient experience.

Huddleston’s program is offered in leading hospitals throughout the United States including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in California. It is also available at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC and Norwalk Hospital in CT.

https://www.norwalkhospital.org/patient-and-visitors-info/integrative-medicine

Studies Show Patients Leave Hospital Sooner, Use Less Pain Medication, Have Higher Satisfaction

Huddleston points to various studies that show how, through enhancing the mind-body connection, patients heal faster and leave the hospital more quickly after surgery.

One study at the Lahey Clinic, a Tufts University Medical School teaching hospital, compared colorectal surgery patients who used the techniques in Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster to a control group who did not use them. According to the study, the group following Huddleston’s program “had significantly less anxiety before surgery” and “were discharged from the hospital 1.6 days sooner than those in the control group.” The test group of patients also “used 60% less pain medication, had significantly less irritability, insomnia, nightmares, loss of appetite and had a significant increase in patient satisfaction” compared to the control group.

In a separate study, New England Baptist Hospital physicians found that knee-joint replacement patients using the Huddleston method were less anxious prior to surgery, healed faster and were discharged 1.3 days sooner than those not using it.

Once patients learn the techniques they can tap back into them each time they undergo another treatment, whether that is surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. In fact, further evidence shows the technique allows patients facing chemotherapy to lessen the side effects of anxiety, nausea and insomnia.

“If mesothelioma patients learn my techniques and put them into practice before their surgery or treatments, they could have a tremendous capacity to influence their own healing,” says Huddleston. “They can learn to access the deep inner peace that is their essence.”

Mind Over Matter Really Does Matter

Mind over matter practices have been around for a long time, and many medical professionals and Americans are beginning to be more open to holistic medicine that focuses on the mind-body connection. The stress of a chronic diagnosis suppresses the immune system when patients need the benefits of a healthy immune system the most. By calming the nerves and easing stress, patients can actually boost their immune system to help fight disease.

“People have such a capacity to influence the course of their treatment,” says Huddleston.

According to a recent survey from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), the number of patients using alternatives to drugs and medicine, including yoga and meditation, to improve health and well-being is high. For example, the study found that between 2002 and 2012, the number of American adults who practice yoga nearly doubled to 21 million.

The NCCIH researchers believe the high rates of yoga use may be attributed to a growing body of research that shows the benefits of mind and body practices for managing pain and reducing stress.

“This is where medicine is going,” says Ericson, “treating the whole person.”

See the following for more information about Peggy Huddleston and Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster:

Boston Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/health-care/2015/01/surgery-preparation-tool-sees-renewed-focus-as.html
HealFaster.com
http://www.healfaster.com/index.html

Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.

Sources:

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide of Mind-Body Techniques
http://www.healfaster.com
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
https://nccih.nih.gov/news/press/02102015mb

Could Your Fatigue Be An Early Warning Sign of Mesothelioma?

One of the first things that Mrs. T noticed was that she was tired. She was not used to being tired, she had a busy life, family, work. At first she thought she was just over doing it- burning the candle at both ends- working too hard. After all, she was getting older. Mrs. T is a 65 year old wife and mother of three grown children. She had always had a lot of energy so when she started to feel tired she didn’t pay much attention to it.

Being tired can be a sign of a hectic a lifestyle, or it can be a sign of a serious health problem. One of the common signs of mesothelioma is fatigue. It is difficult when you are feeling “just tired” to pay a lot of attention to it. Experts suggest that if you are tired all the time that you make some lifestyle changes and then monitor how you feel. Eat more wholesome foods, drink more fluids, get more sleep, cut back on caffeine and alcohol, and give it two to three weeks. After this time, if you are still feeling inexplicably tired, consult your doctor. Sometimes subtle things like being tired are warning signs.

Mrs. T also started having shortness of breath and didn’t feel right. She went to her primary care physician, and after testing to rule out common causes, she was diagnosed with early stage mesothelioma. In retrospect, Mrs. T remembers just “feeling tired all the time.” Luckily for Mrs. T, she did not ignore how she felt and went to her doctor who ran the appropriate tests.

Diagnosing mesothelioma can be a clinical challenge as the symptoms can be vague and often follows the diagnosis of pneumonia or a recurrent issue. The most common symptoms of mesothelioma can be chest pain, painful cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and weight loss. All of these symptoms are much more common in other conditions. Diagnosis can be a challenge.

If you have been feeling tired for an extended period of time don’t ignore it. Pay attention and visit a medical professional – it could help to save your life.

If you have any questions about any aspect of your mesothelioma care, please email me at [email protected].

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