The following is a personal story submitted to Civilian Exposure and published as part of our new series: “Contamination Chronicles: Personal Stories of Exposure”. If you would like to submit your story, you may fill out our form here or send directly via email to share-@-civilianexposure.org.
In 2009, I got cancer on the base of my tongue spreading to my lymph nodes in my neck. The doctors all missed it in Clearwater, Fla. where I was living at the time and I sued them. They all lied in my depositions and filled out reports with false information.
To make it a shorter story, I have been in the system seven years and my last appeal was a remand on Oct. 31st 2017. On my birthday this year, I got a personal phone call telling me I have been denied again. This is due to those doctors reports that are all lies and false statements they gave to my attorney!
I even had a nexus letter to attach to my appeal.
Louisville VA doesn’t care. They will take anything and turn it against you, right or wrong. I have written almost all of the Veterans Committee in Congress and the Senate and none will even respond. The sad thing is that I had my neck removed, 42 days of chemo and radiation, and am living with the damage all of that has done to my body, face, neck, tongue, and my saliva glands. My heart is enlarged and not pulling the blood back to my heart so my feet swell and ache. My liver is enlarged with a cyst and pain in my side that never goes away. I am anemic, have a blood disorder, and experience PTSD.
All my VA doctors have all different info than those that lied about me in Florida. But because they missed my cancer, I have to pay. The VA will take any negative info and hold it against you for life and Congress and the Senate will not do anything!
I will not stop my mission. I have a lawyer who is doing a great job but I hired him late in the game. I should have gotten him involved sooner. I guess my advice would be to make sure that you don’t have any negatives in your records, for that’s all they look for when deciding your case. No matter how small it is.
Semper Fi!
Note from the Editor: The author currently resides in Kentucky. The account/editorial is verbatim from the author without edit, with only the omission of their name to preserve anonymity.
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