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SOLDIER FINALLY WINS FIGHT FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS --

Several military lawyers feel there is a systemic problem

with the way soldiers are being treated by the

Physical Evaluation Board.

 

Richard Twohig - Meds he's taken in the past year.

 

We have two background stories...

Here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%20newsf
lashes%20AUG%2006/newsflash08-25-2006-8.htm

And here... http://www.vawatchdog.
org/07/nf07/nfFEB07/nf022507-6.htm

Today's story here... http://www.fayobserver
.com/article?id=264046

Story below:

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Soldier wins fight for disability benefits

By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer

Richard Twohig was a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division four years ago when he was accidentally thrown from the back of an armored personnel carrier.

He hasn’t been the same since: The head injury cause headaches so severe that he spends 12 to 14 hours in bed with the shades drawn. His short-term memory fails him, and he has a constant ringing in his ears.

But it has taken years for the military to award him the benefits for which his injuries qualify him.

The Physical Evaluation Board at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington ruled in March 2005 that Twohig did not present any objective information to prove that his crippling headaches were a result of the accident.

He was determined to be less than 30 percent disabled. In order to received Defense Department benefits, he had to meet the 30 percent level.

His lawyer, Mark Waple of Fayetteville, appealed the board’s ruling to the Army Board of Correction of Military Records.

The appeal was filed in July 2006 and the Army changed its ruling and awarded him a 30 percent disability rating in a May 22 decision, citing evidence presented in a rare minority opinion.

Lt. Col. Nick Gnemi, a member of Twohig’s 2005 three-man review board, argued that his headaches were caused by the accident.

The Army Board of Correction of Military Records agreed.

“Now he and his family will qualify for health-care benefits,” Waple said.

The first ruling on Twohig’s case came before the patient-care scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that cost the secretary of the Army his job. The second ruling — the one in Twohig’s favor — came in the wake of that scandal and the scrutiny of military health care that has accompanied it.

Waple doesn’t think the timing is a coincidence.

He is among several military lawyers who feel there is a systemic problem with the way soldiers are being treated by the Physical Evaluation Board.

“The Physical Evaluation Board has been broken for years,” Waple said. “Richard’s case, one of many, unfortunately shows how hard service members have to work to show the merits of their case and why they should be medically retired.”
Good and bad days

Twohig lives near his mother in Tennessee. Doctors are still getting his medication right, and he is seeing a counselor.

“Richard is doing OK,” Belinda Twohig said. “He has his good days and bad days.”

Twohig’s mother is a retired Marine major. She said the family is happy about the ruling.

“I knew somebody was going to see through this and do the right thing,” Belinda Twohig said.

She hopes her son’s case is a source of inspiration for other veterans fighting for benefits.

“It was a matter of being persistent,” Belinda Twohig said.

 

Staff writer Kevin Maurer can be reached at maurerk@fayobserver.com  or 486-3587.

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Larry Scott  --