My 4 year-old granddaughter, Lucy, has been explaining my recent illness by flatly stating, “Grandpa’s got a bug in his lungs.”  Thankfully after an almost two-week illness, I am ready to head back to the office… for half a day. (After all, “In Sickness and in Health” is the official name of my weekly blog, even though its host website is http://ricksblog.lawelderlaw.com.)  During my bout with sinusitis—which morphed into bronchitis—I experienced several things worth sharing.

First, when we are healthy, we do take a lot for granted.  I am grateful to be able to sleep in a bed again after many nights of trying to sleep in a chair.

Second, being a lawyer is not very helpful when you need medical care.  One physician who did a follow-up checkup told me that the prior doctor warned her that “he is a lawyer.”  I was not exactly sure how I should feel about that, but  it was obvious that we lawyers cause medical personnel to act as though they are treating a sick cobra. Third, I enjoyed using Wikipedia to look up everything I could about my illnesses and medications.  As a predominantly left-brained analytical, it is very satisfying to come home from a doctor’s office or the urgent care and look up information.  It was very helpful to understand the diagnosis of bronchitis.  I actually understood my own anatomy better and could better apply what the doctor had told me to do and what to expect.  In addition, I had been admonished to NOT use a cough suppressant  medications.  “But why?” I wondered.  “I feel like I really need some cough medicine!”  To better understand that order, I looked up cough suppressant medicines and learned that with bronchitis, its better to “promote coughing.”  Cough suppressants actually make it more difficult to clear the bronchial tubes.

It really helped to check all of the information out via Wikipedia ( www.wikipedia.org) and WebMD (www.webmd.com).  I could better understand why I got a little crazy after spraying Albuterol into my  body.  Nonetheless, that medication is a life-saver for asthmatics and folks afflicted with acute bronchitis.  For more on that, see the article entitled “Ventolin remains a breath of fresh air for asthmatics after 40 years.”

I am extremely grateful to my wife, Rose, and the entire legal team at Law ElderLaw.  We recently celebrated our 5th anniversary as an elder law-focused practice.  When I decided to dedicate myself to the frail elderly and the disabled, one of my biggest concerns was my own age.  One of my chief goals has been to make sure that if and when something happens to me, in that I cannot serve as the leader, the Law ElderLaw team would be strong enough to carry on.  Based on recent experience, I can assure everyone that Law ElderLaw is being ably managed and staffed by my successors.  Nonetheless, it’s time for me to get back to work!

(This post about our amazing veterans and Law ElderLaw’s dedication to helping them receive the benefits they deserve was first published in October of 2008. I am reposting this today in the hopes that it will help more veterans and their families find the aid they need.)

“Most of the men who hit the beach with me that day now lie under little white crosses. Some news guy wrote that if you landed on Iwo Jima in the first wave and you were not hit by machine gun fire, that it was as unlikely as running through a thunderstorm and not getting wet. There was nowhere to hide on that rock. It was like fighting on the moon. No trees, nowhere to find cover. There were so many of us that every time the Japanese fired, somebody got hit. During the first three days that I was on the island, I got a bullet-hole through my shirt, my helmet, and my pants.”

These are the words of my client Fred as he described to me the experience of going up against the Japanese forces who manned the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. Many of my veteran clients have amazing stories to tell from their days in the service.

As an attorney who is focused on the issues of the elderly, an important part of my practice is to assist wartime veterans who are now over 65 and disabled. We often assist them (pro bono) by securing a veteran benefit to help pay for care for themselves and/or their disabled spouses. I am honored to have the opportunity to serve those who have served their country so well.

Fred was in my office that day to discuss how he was going to pay the over $8000 a month cost of care for his wife, who suffered her first debilitating stroke eighteen years ago and has needed care ever since.

Fortunately for Fred, a wartime veteran does have the possibility of receiving some assistance through a VA Special Monthly Pension. It’s important to understand that Aid and Attendance or the Survivor Spouse VA benefit is only available to those who meet very stringent limitations related to medical necessity for care, and financial need as determined by both income and asset limitations. It is my job as an attorney to be able to assist individuals to evaluate what, if any, VA Aid and Attendance benefits may be available to them. This VA benefit can make all the difference in helping a wartime veteran or widowed spouse maintain their dignity, home, and lifestyle.

For more information click here to download any of our .pdf guides about VA Benefits.

Our Law ElderLaw motto is “Serving Seniors and Those Who Love Them.”  Jo Buscemi, niece of Raffaella Calabrese (more affectionately known as “Auntie Florence”), shared these words with me and asked me to share them with you:

Auntie Florence

Dear Mr. Law,

Around October 2008 my mother and I had our first meeting with Mr. Jonathan Johnson in regards to my Aunt Raffaella Calabrese (“Auntie Florence”).  My aunt had suffered for years with dementia and had various (six in all) live-in caregivers.  I was told by many to keep my aunt in familiar surroundings for as long as possible and I being her power of attorney, I did exactly that.

I came to your Aurora office one day and had our initial meeting with Jonathan.  I was very apprehensive.  Norridge HealthCare Facility recommended that I talk with you folks.  Well, after our second meeting with Jonathan and many phone calls and questions, we returned in about November of 2008 and contracted with your firm for assistance.  I put off as long as I possibly could placing Auntie in a nursing home, and then only because our sixth caregiver was returning to Poland and Auntie had exhausted all her life’s savings in addition to what I paid for from my savings.  I have MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and it was difficult to care for my aunt and mom, so I had to quit my job two years ago.  But this letter is not about me—it is about my Auntie Florence.

Auntie went to live at Norridge HealthCare Facility on June 18, 2009 and sadly, she passed away on February 9, 2010.  We were very satisfied with this facility and its staff.  During this time I was assigned to Gina Salamone as our attorney at Law ElderLaw.  I know I drove Gina and Sean (and everyone who answered the phone) nuts with all my calls and my frantic questions and nervousness.  I do believe Gina and I have a bond, though, and I trusted her with my precious family member and for that I am very grateful to her.

Jonathan Johnson and Gina Salamone

I have recommended people to your firm and I have even gone as far as handing out Jonathan’s and Gina’s phone numbers—and advised these people to get all their ducks in a row now rather than wait.

I have attached a picture of Auntie Florence and I wish you to express my family’s sincere appreciation for all the thousand times I called, ranted, cried, and went nuts—but your staff never gave up, not once.  Gina even went to the DHS regional manager on our behalf.

Mr. Law, I really appreciate everything your entire staff did for Auntie, and I promise you I will always recommend people who need this type of help to your firm.  God bless everyone at Law ElderLaw in Aurora, Illinois.  Thank you all again on behalf of Auntie Florence and the Buscemi family—we truly thank you.   Please enjoy the catered lunch on Thursday that my family is having delivered to your office.

Jo Buscemi

Enjoying the meal

I suppose it was a lot of ego (combined with what little remains of my testosterone) that pushed me to make the decision to ride a horse through the Andes Mountains.  Or maybe it was the great promotional copy and the photos at www.rideandes.com:

“…ride through a stunningly beautiful, remote area of Northern Patagonia along old smuggler’s routes—crisscrossing rivers, skirting around brilliant blue lakes, riding through ancient forests, stopping off to fish or swim in crystal clear waters… an exclusive journey into hidden valleys through this rural gaucho (South American cowboy) culture, from the Chilean Lake District to an Argentine national park.  Enjoy the adventure long after the road has ended in the pristine Patagonian wilderness.”

Wow!  It almost sounded like Robert Louis Stevenson was inviting me to visit Treasure Island.  So, screwing up my courage, I decided to try to sell my wife Rose on this idea.  (She is the one with the common sense in this family.)  “Rose, I want our grandchildren to remember their grandfather as a man who, when he was sixty, rode a horse through the Andes from Chile to Argentina.”  She looked up from her work and calmly asked, “Have you talked to Ken Ireland at Northwestern Mutual about this?”  I answered, “No, why?”  She said, “You need to take out more life insurance before you go.”

So with that heartfelt vote of confidence, I did two things:

1. I sent in my deposit for the horse trek; and
2. I applied for a substantial increase in my life insurance.

Later, I learned that when my mother heard about my plans to embark on this Andes Mountains crossing, she predicted that I would not come back alive.  I chose not to mention her prediction nor my eight-day horse trek on the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance policy application.

Shortly before the horseback ride, I received a letter entitled “Travel Notes: Essentials!”  We were advised to pack no more than 32 pounds of gear, and told that the airline would fine us for any overweight luggage.  In all caps it stated, “RAIN PONCHOS will be provided.  You must bring suitable waterproof trousers and jackets.  Be prepared for wet and cold mountainous weather.  Bring easy-to-dry clothes.”  What?!

I said to Rose, “I’m going in February, but it’s summertime in South America, right?”  Rose got on the internet and discovered that even though my horse trip was in the Patagonian summer, it’s still a mighty cool and wet place.  In fact, one of the side trips that is offered before the ride is a day trip to the island of Chiloe to see the penguins, seals, and an occasional orca whale.  Oops!  I did not own any waterproof pants or quick-dry clothes—but I do now!

The weather did start out cold and rainy, but during the actual ride we had sunny skies.  Every morning was cool and damp, but by 10:30 a.m. we had peeled down to shirtsleeves.

The trip was truly one of the travel high points of my life!  If you would like to read the eight-day itinerary, you can click on this link: Ride the Andes Itinerary.  If you would like to view a gallery of our photos from the ride, you can click here to see my photo album.

I highly recommend Sally Vergette and www.rideandes.com and Catherine Berard at Open Travel.   I have taken some kind of a progressive horse trek every year since 1985, and this was one of the best ever.  If you have questions or just want more information, please feel free to contact me at rick@lawelderlaw.com.

My Bucket List Adventure:  February 27, 2010

My traveling companion, Joaquin Tortos, and I had just ended our eight-day horse trek through the Andes Mountains, so we were sleeping soundly.

But the peaceful night ended at 3:34 a.m. (the middle of the night)…  Our world was violently shaking, and all over the city, car alarms screamed that they were being violated.  300 miles away, chaos, death, and destruction devastated central Chile—but where I slept that night, no one died and no buildings collapsed.  Joaquin awoke and exclaimed, “That was a BIG earthquake!”  Joaquin Tortos is a veteran survivor of disastrous earthquakes.  He lives within the shadow of the Turrialba Volcano which recently reignited after a 150-year siesta.  His home is Costa Rica, Central America, which, like Chile, is a land of violent earthquakes and active volcanoes.

We were safe, but many miles away in Costa Rica and the United States, our families were deeply concerned that we might have been injured or killed.  One of my daughters was worried that I had died, and her husband reassured her with this thought:  “Honey, your dad is not dead—but if he is dead… that is the way that he would like to go!”  When I heard about his comment, I heartily agreed.

One of my sons took a much more pragmatic approach and checked Google Maps to determine that I was about 300 miles from the epicenter and deduced that I was out of danger.  As it turned out, there was extensive destruction throughout a 250-mile radius of the earthquake’s origin.

Although we were uninjured, our travel plans were turned upside down.  Chile immediately declared a national emergency and began to ration gasoline and other fuels.  All airline flights were cancelled due to the extensive damage in Santiago, the capital city.  All domestic flights in Chile are routed through Santiago.  The airport was out of operation, and many highways, bridges, and other infrastructure were destroyed.  See photos here.

Suddenly, we had a BIG problem!  How do you get home when your airline has shut down indefinitely and has cancelled all flights?  All telephone lines are jammed with calls and you are a long, long way from  home…  At first I thought, “Well, if we can’t get home, then we will just make the best of it.”  But I was promptly told that since gas was being rationed, there would be no more tours.  Fortunately, our horse trek tour organizer, Catherine Berard, and her assistant Susana Uribe worked tirelessly to rescue us and “find us a way out of Dodge.”

Cathy apologized that the airline refused to refund any money due to the loss of our flights and that emergency travel was going to be… “a little expensive.”  We assured her that our wives would be oh-so happy to have us back home and that they would forgive this over-spending.  Unfortunately, I did not know that my wife had just sent an e-mail which stated, “If you cannot get back… I will just go on without you.”

Nonetheless, we hired a private driver to race through the twists and turns of the Andean passes to try to make the Chile/Argentina border crossing by the closing time of 9:00 p.m.  We held our breath while our driver used both lanes to make better time.  We reached the Argentinean border guards at exactly 8:53 p.m. and they closed the gates behind us!

Early the next morning we dragged into the offices of AeroLineas Argentina to see if we could get tickets to Buenos Aires, which we could.  From there we flew to Panama City, and then to be reunited with our Costa Rican family and my wife, Rose.  Whew!

Please help with Chilean disaster relief.  Here are two trusted organizations which can help us make people’s lives better:

Habitat for Humanity

American Red Cross

Recently I was sitting down with some very good friends when a cell phone rang.  A look of worry shot across my friend’s brow as he looked at me and apologized, “I’ve got to take this call… my Dad’s missing!  He’s gone wandering…”  I could not help but listen as he spoke to relatives several hundred miles away.  He murmured hopefully, “Maybe they’ll bring Dad to the shelter.”  After saying goodbye he looked at me with pain across his face and said, “Nobody knows where he is.  He’s got Alzheimer’s, and my mom can’t keep him in the house anymore.”  About 30 minutes later he got the call that Dad had been found and everything was okay—this time.  As I sat there, I wondered if my friend knew of some of the resources available to help keep track of vulnerable or wandering loved ones—and it occurred to me that our readers may also be unaware of some of these resources.

One of the reasons that having a wandering relative afflicted with dementia is so frightening is that they don’t act (or react) in the same way that a typical lost person would.  A helpful page at Ask.com explains how wanderers with dementia will not cry out for help or respond to your calls to them, nor will they leave many physical clues to lead you to them.  What a wanderer is likely to do is go to an old place of residence or a favorite location.

Luckily, there are resources out there to help with wandering relatives—so you don’t have to just wait nervously by the phone.  One of these resources is the Medic-Alert Safe-Return program detailed on the Alzheimer’s Association website.  This program provides 24-hour nationwide assistance and supplies members with an individual emblem engraved with the program’s emergency response number.  If you want to try to stop wandering at its source, the Mayo Clinic has a page detailing some of the reasons why elderly relatives may wander, and includes some suggestions on how you might prevent it.  But remember—no matter how much you do, Mom or Dad may still wander.  Don’t blame yourself if it happens!

The best thing to do is be prepared for the occasions when the wandering does happen.  Use the resources provided above, and keep other relatives and caregivers informed.

Hogar De Ancianos San Buenaventura, Turrialba, Costa Rica, Central America

My wife, Rose, and I recently visited the county nursing home in Turrialba, Costa Rica. We lived in Turrialba for a year in 2003-2004 to study Spanish and to learn a different culture, and our lives have been forever changed and broadened by that experience.  We now feel at home in this Spanish-speaking land.  We love being here surrounded by tropical birds, coffee plantations, and sugar cane fields.

This trip we wanted to learn about the local county nursing home, so we asked our friend and Spanish teacher, Olivia to ask permission to visit.  Yesterday we visited what is literally called “Home for the Ancient Ones”—Hogar de Ancianos.  We like it that Costa Ricans are not troubled by our North American political correctness filter.  They often call me “Gordo” which means chubby… oh well!  If someone has green eyes they are called “Gato” or “Gatica,” which means cat or kitten.  But back to my story.

Olivia was our guide and we were accompanied by the assistant to the administrator, Benigne Solono Trejos, a living example of caring and compassion.  The facility is nestled into the volcanic mountainside of Turrialba and has a panoramic view of the now-active Turrialba Volcano and the widespread green of the valley below.  There were tropical flowers everywhere upon the grounds of the Hogar.  The windows and doors of the residents’ rooms were wide open to admit the warm sunshine and gentle breezes.  It can be cold here, but the average temperature year round is a lovely life-giving 75 degrees F.

Costa Rica is the wealthiest country in Central America, but it is not rich by Western European or North American standards.  The facility may lack much of the equipment that is taken for granted in the USA, but the most important resources are present in abundance—loving and compassionate caregivers and administrators.  The facility smells of flowers and cleanliness!  I inspected every room and they were clean, clean, clean!

Our administrative hostess, Sr. Solono, has worked at the facility for 16 years and has sacrificed to stay at the Hogar and provide care for “the Old Ones.”  She considers every aged resident a part of her family.  At every room, it was obvious that the residents feel respected and valued. They live in a place of dignity.

Most of the residents sat outside in the open air.  It was a beautiful day!  The buildings are designed with rooftops with large overhangs to create a front porch-terrace effect.  Those who were able could walk around, pet the dog, and volunteer to help in the laundry or do other small chores.  After all, everyone of every age wants to feel useful.

There are about 70 full-time residents at the home.  Surprisingly, there are far more men than women.  If you have visited a nursing home in the U.S. you know that there are very few men, since women typically outlive men by many years.  I asked how it could be that there were more men than women.  I was told that in Costa Rica, families try to keep the old ones at home and that women are able to provide more help with child care, cooking, and cleaning than men.  My wife said, “See I told you that you men are harder to take care of!”

The question of paying for long term care was my next enquiry.  Sr. Solono told us that the central and local governments provide only a bit of support.  In fact, just like in the U.S., government may give with one hand but take with the other.  In Costa Rica, the government keeps raising the standards of care but provides no money to accomplish those goals.  Amazingly, one of the biggest sources of funding for the Hogar is a lottery which is conducted on an as-needed basis.  (The Hogar must receive a governmental permit to sell lottery tickets within the county that they serve.)  In addition, they own a fairgrounds where they conduct an annual fair as a fundraiser.  Fundraising is a constant concern and activity of the administration and many volunteers.

As we visited many residents, we were cheerfully greeted by those who were able.  I fell in love with Eva, an octogenarian who happily spoke excellent English.  Her career was as an assistant in the international center of agriculture called Catie.  She shares a room with her sister, who is confined to a wheelchair and sat quietly until she spied my bare legs sticking out below my walking shorts.  She is the first woman in my life to become excited upon seeing my legs!  She chortled and in Spanish she told me that I had chubby legs.  Olivia, our Spanish teacher, said that she was flirting with me.  My wife stated flatly, “You should be so lucky!”

I want to thank Sr. Solono Trejos and the entire team at the Hogar de Ancianos San Buenaventura.  You are doing a great job as you serve seniors and those who love them!

Most of us have seen angels represented as either winged cherubs or gracefully-robed harp players.  Just before last Christmas, I met a real harp-playing angel named Barbara Fackler.  I was introduced to Barbara because she had been employed by Passages Hospice to provide music for a resident at Aurora Rehabilitation Center.  Frankly, I had never heard of music therapy, so I was eager to understand what Barbara does and how she helps the healing process.

Barbara became involved with therapeutic music accidentally.  She has loved playing the harp since she was a child—she says there was no other instrument that she wanted to play.  Her idea of the perfect harp is a pedal harp, which is a large, heavy, awkward-to-move instrument.  She smiled when she told me that her husband, Dan Fackler, always jokes that she married him only because he was the most careful guy that she had “auditioned” as a harp-transporting boyfriend.

A number of years ago, Barbara decided she needed to acquire a harp small enough to take when visiting relatives out of town.  The first trip the little harp made was to visit her grandfather, whose Alzheimer’s had progressed to the point that he rarely spoke.  However, after Barbara played her harp for him, he went from silence to speaking in short sentences.  Additionally, he became responsive in his interactions with other family members.  It was a stunning discovery.  “There is something magical about acoustic sound.  Scientific research has repeatedly suggested that acoustic music has a more profound effect than recorded music,” Barbara relates.

In addition to her work with hospice patients, Barbara uses her harp as a way to share her gift of music with friends and loved ones who are ill.  She takes her harp with her to the hospital sick room.  “Having a conversation with someone in the hospital can be very exhausting to the patient.  So, I decided to just show up with my harp and play beautiful music.  It is great to just go, play, and provide a human connection that does not require any expectations of an interactive response.”

Barbara has earned respect for her uncanny ability to connect with many seniors and others who suffer from chronic progressive diseases.  One of her clients at Aurora Rehabilitation Center has primary progressive aphasia.  “Aphasia” means the inability to create words or speak.  This particular client cannot recover and often appears confused and unintelligible.  However, following a music session in which Barbara plays the harp for an hour, the client often appears much more capable and articulate for the next few days.

One of Barbara’s current endeavors is teaching the harp to senior citizen students.  She told me that learning to play a new instrument is one of the best ways to create mental stimulation.  She says, “Musicians work between the left and right hemispheres of their brains faster than other people.  In addition, it’s great therapy after a stroke.  If you teach the dominant side of the body to do something, then the less-dominant side can learn to mimic.”  She has seen how learning to play the harp after a stroke allows people to regain more functionality than other types of therapy.

Barbara has just completed a new CD entitled Pleasantries & Diversions.  You can click on this link: www.hornandharp.com to find out how to purchase that CD.  I highly recommend that you consider visiting her website www.harpinstead.com or phoning her at 630-665-6098 to purchase her music and/or engage her services as a harpist.

There is one thing that a number of prominent medical research organizations have come to agree upon—that classical music can be used to produce positive healing effects.  That led me to ask this question:  If classical music heals, then does music that you don’t like actually hurt you?  The answer to that question seems to be yes!

Organizations such as Mayo Clinic, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Stanford University, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the Cleveland Hospital have all conducted extensive studies on the health benefits of joyful music.

The inquiry was based on the now well-known concept originally discovered by Norman Cousins and detailed in his book Anatomy of an Illness, which concluded that joyful experiences create positive health benefits.  A study presented at the American Heart Association 2008 Scientific Sessions demonstrated that when you listen to music that you associate with positive emotions, it has a positive effect on reducing your mental stress and also opens up your circulatory system to function better.

In fact, the researchers found that when volunteers were measured, their overall cardiovascular system was improved by joyful music. The researchers found that the subjects’ blood flow was affected in the following ways:

• Listening to enjoyable music increased blood flow by 26%;
• Listening to anxiety-provoking music decreased blood flow by 6%;
• Watching humorous videos increased blood flow by 19%; and
• Listening to relaxation tapes increased blood flow by 11%.

In other words, when your mental stress is reduced by engaging in enjoyable activities such as watching humorous videos or listening to enjoyable music, your overall stress is reduced and your health is improved.  In fact, the magnitude of increased blood flow could be as high as that produced by aerobic exercise.

In addition, it has been discovered by a number of researchers that the perfect instrument for the maximum benefit is one of the oldest instruments known to man: the harp.  In fact, the Cleveland Clinic has actually commissioned the Cleveland Orchestra to compose specific classical pieces to play for patients during brain operations.  Now during the process of treating people with traumatic brain injuries, strokes, depression, and even multiple sclerosis, the doctors choose to have music playing in the background.

Harpist Tami Briggs was quoted in “Music as Medicine” by Bill Briggs as saying that the harp “goes to the deepest places of the body that need to be healed.”  She went on to say that when she plays the harp at the bedside of patients, she is able to see the blood pressure monitors actually going down and oxygenation rates going up.  She attributes that to the harp assisting the human brain to go to a more peaceful place where it can find deeper relaxation.

Ms. Briggs when on to say that “the harp is the only instrument that has 20 to 50 strings and is open, unlike a violin.  When a harpist strikes a chord, it also opens vibrations in strings above and below the string that is plucked.  Those vibrations are absorbed by the body.”

So the true answer regarding whether or not country music hurts?  It depends upon the listener!  If you love country, then it can be healing for you.  If you hate to listen to certain types of music… then don’t do it. Whatever type of music provides you with deep enjoyment can contribute to your healing process.

I think I’m going to sit down with a cup of Costa Rican coffee now and listen to Gene Autry.

(“Brown water” means service in the rivers and delta areas of Vietnam)

Even though elder law attorneys are primarily focused on nursing home benefits for wartime veterans who may be eligible for “Aid and Attendance” (a long term care benefit which helps to pay for in-home care, assisted living care, and nursing home care), we are also keenly interested in veteran’s benefits for Vietnam-era veterans.  This post has important information that should be forwarded to anyone who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam Conflict.

One of the ongoing scandals of our country is our failure to fairly compensate Vietnam war era veterans who were exposed to the poison called dioxin that was in the herbicide referred to as “Agent Orange” (AO).  Many vets have been denied legitimate claims when trying to receive disability compensation for delayed diseases due to their exposure to AO.  Agent Orange is still killing Vietnam veterans from all of our service branches.

We belong to an organization called the Veteran’s Advocates Group of America (VAGA), which provides educational materials and communication for those who are concerned about VA issues.  It was reported to us last week by Karen McIntyre, president of VAGA, that  the VA has just announced that veterans serving on certain ships in the waters of Vietnam during the Vietnam Conflict are now eligible for Agent Orange presumptive service compensation benefits.  This also opens the door for surviving spouses, dependent children, and dependent parents who may possibly get death benefits due to the death of their Vietnam veteran spouse, parent, or child.

This decision to compensate “brown water” Vietnam veterans opens the door for VA health insurance as well.  In the past, an Agent Orange claimant had to prove that he/she was a veteran who had “boots on the ground” in Vietnam before the VA would award service-connected compensation.  But this recent “brown water” ruling finally opens the door for many of these deserving veterans and their dependents to get much-needed benefits as well.

It’s important to remember that there are many who served in Vietnam who have already died as a result of an Agent Orange condition—so it is not too late for survivor spouses or dependents to file for benefits.

I have attached a .pdf document at the bottom of this post (entitled “BrownWaterClaims”), which you can click on and download for information about Vietnam naval ships which worked in the inland waterways known as the “brown water” rivers and delta areas of Vietnam.  This is a  huge step forward for many of our veterans who were serving on “blue water” naval vessels but who also conducted operations in “brown water.”  Individuals who served on these ships may be presumed to have had exposure to Agent Orange and its deadly herbicide called dioxin.  Please forward this communication to all Vietnam war veterans and/or surviving spouses.

This expansion of coverage still leaves our “blue water” servicemen and women who served on naval ships at sea without adequate compensation.  Despite the fact that it is now well known that Agent Orange was toxic to anyone who handled it, the federal government and the VA have continued to deny full coverage to many of our servicemen/women.  The next big step is for our government to admit that anyone serving in the Vietnam theater of operations may well have been poisoned by Agent Orange.  Nonetheless, let’s celebrate this victory and the extension of benefits to “brown water Vietnam veterans.”   Hooray!

BrownWaterClaims