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Old Tue Mar 29, 2011, 07:18 AM
Bob Macfarlane Bob Macfarlane is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Soutwest Ranches, Florida
Posts: 126
VA willing to do whatever it takes

I doubt they will print this but it was just sent to the editor of the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/agentorange/

Your series on Agent Orange was very interesting and I wish I had known about it earlier.

Betrayed is hardly the word we use to describe ourselves. I have myelodysplastic syndrome (bone marrow cancer) caused by Agent Orange.

That it not my opinion, that is the ruling of the Board of Veterans' Appeals in Washington DC. Yet, the Department of Veterans' Affairs found a lung cancer expert, Dr. Michael Kelly, at Duke University to opine that mine is not malignant. Result? No compensation for an incurable and fatal form of cancer closely related to Multiple Myeloma.

That it is cancer is the opinion of the VAST majority of the medical community involved with the disease – just today an expert on MDS from Mayo Clinic told me that “Of course, it is cancer and there is no such thing as a benign cancer.” A MDS expert from Harvard Medical told me "To say it is not malignant is bizarre." A MDS expert from John Hopkins has told me "They are playing word games." Lest I forget, it is also the opinion of the National Cancer Institute and the American Society of Hematology that MDS is cancer.

Your article (Part 2 'Insult to injury') refers to disability claims as a “convoluted” process – that makes me laugh. The process is more akin to Alice falling into the rabbit hole or a Steven King novel. Nothing about it is real. I see now though that my biggest sin was to have gotten this disease and not have gone to West Point with Secretary Shinseki.

Vietnam veterans are 14,000+% more likely to get MDS than the general population (FOIA report from the VA) and the VA continues to delay, deny and hope we die (they also lie.) Why? Disability accrues to the veteran and not our survivors. We have the audacity to die and the VA wins.



Bob Macfarlane
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