ALS victims to get VA benefits
Senate passed the bill based on a link between military service and ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
September 24, 2008


Ken Patterson, a 40-year-old retired Army sergeant from Florida, went to Washington, D.C. last spring the hard way — in a battery-powered wheelchair, 50 miles at a time. Drivers yelled at him to get off the road. They cursed. Some made crude gestures.

But on Tuesday — four months after Patterson met with lawmakers to raise awareness about the link between military service and Lou Gehrig's disease — his mission was accomplished.

The Veterans Administration granted all veterans with the disease full access to VA health and disability benefits, regardless of where or when they served in the military. The new rules take effect immediately.

"Veterans are developing [the disease] in rates higher than the general population, and it was appropriate to take action," VA Secretary James Peake said.



"It's just good to see that all of our collective hard work has paid off," said Patterson through his wife, Glenda.

In November 2006, Patterson was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — better known as Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS — a fatal neurological disorder that, for reasons that remain a mystery, has been found to be twice as common among those who have served in the military than in those who haven't. The disease progressively robs its victims of the ability to walk, speak, move, and even breathe. It leaves a perfectly alert mind in an otherwise lifeless body.

Patterson's three-year stint in the military never took him out of Fort Benning, Ga. But he and others — including research scientists — wonder whether the chemicals he was exposed to or the vaccines he was given might have somehow made him vulnerable.

The VA based its decision primarily on a November 2006 report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine on the association between active-duty service and ALS, though several veterans have testified before Congress.

Previously, the VA had agreed to grant benefits only to veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"This is absolutely huge, especially financially," said spokeswoman Kamden Kuhn of The ALS Association's Florida Chapter. "It takes something like a quarter-million dollars per year to care for an ALS patient, which is out of this world. So to have the government help with that burden is just great news."

Also Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the ALS Registry Act, which will require physicians and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to chart those diagnosed with the disease. Advocates, including The ALS Association, hope that it will give researchers a better handle on the number of patients — presumed to be about 30,000 nationally — and any common thread that might help lead to prevention or treatment. As it is, the cause of the disease remains unknown.

The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass easily by the end of the week.



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