In July 2023, my father, a Marine Corp veteran, was diagnosed with Bulbar onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a service-related disease that rapidly cripples and eventually robs a person the ability to breathe resulting in death. There is no cure and treatments are minimal with a 100% fatality rate.
After a year from being diagnosed, we were advised to seek an increase in benefits as the disease has advanced and now he can no longer speak, is unable to walk more than 50 feet and is being fed by a gastric tube, among other horrible symptoms.
This is approached utilizing the conditions of the PACT Act; the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) policy designed to help veterans to access care and expedite certain claims and aid after service to their nation.
In the VA’s attempt to expedite care, a provider was sent via a third-party company with admittedly no knowledge of ALS. This lack of qualified evaluation resulted in improper and completely inaccurate diagnosis being applied to the claim.
Every effort was made to correct the issue. This went nowhere. We have reached out to Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who has also made every excuse to not help in the matter, citing undocumented emails and simply allowing the VA to continue this error with no effort to serve a group she advocates publicly in support of.
This is the email I have received back from the congresswoman’s aide that was forwarded to me from the liaison with Seattle VA.
“I sent you the below response from the VA on Monday. Mr. Dancer and his Service organization are not following established procedures as outlined in the notification letter dated September 6, 2024 which outlines 3 options if they disagree with the decision (formally called appeal options). Instead of filing an appeal, they have submitted an identical claim for special monthly compensation without submitting new and relevant evidence (evidence showing us why we have assigned the wrong special monthly compensation level) which was received on September 25, 2024. Since they did not follow proper procedures, the claim will go through the claim cycle and the outcome will be the same. Best.”
We are now in the same boat as we were with the initial revelation claim starting in May. As of today, we have had another third-party evaluation with similar lack of medical qualifications deny my father has any worsening symptoms. This goes against an expertise doctor that specializes in ALS, filling out a form to the VA explaining how bad my father’s symptoms are.
With the five months of torture and humiliation that the VA has put my father and other veterans who are dying from this unforgiving disease, I am crying out for help. I am now my father’s voice and at loss of where to go now.
Kelsey Dancer
Toledo
