01/15/08: Helping Blind Veterans - Dr. Jim Allen
Jim Allen is a longtime WNPJ member, and member of Madison Veterans for Peace.
Helping Blind Veterans
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: D1
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By PATRICIA SIMMS psimms@madison.com 608-252-6492
When Madison ophthalmologist James Allen retired seven years ago and started lobbying for a small change in veterans benefit laws, soldiers hadn't started coming home from Iraq with terrible eye injuries.
Allen's effort, which began on behalf of one disabled World War II veteran, paid off in late December when President Bush signed into law an expansion of benefits for veterans with eye injuries.
"I don't think this bill could have come at a better time," Dr. Andrew Thliveris, chief of ophthalmology at the Veterans Hospital in Madison, said Monday. "There has been a shift in the type of casualties soldiers are experiencing."
Body armor is saving the lives of soldiers in Iraq, Thliveris said, but faces are hard to put in armor - veterans, who may have died before body armor, are surviving but with more severe ocular injuries.
But Allen, now 79, knew only that one of his patients, Donald May, of Lodi, wasn't getting the veterans' benefits to which Allen thought he was entitled.
"I had promised the guy we'd change the law," Allen said. "I had to keep my promise."
May, an 84-year-old retired salesman, lost one eye to shrapnel from a hand grenade in France four days after D-Day. Now, years later, he was losing the sight in his other eye.
In similar situations with other "paired" body parts, May would have been able to receive increased veterans' benefits, Allen said, but the devil was in the definition of "blind" in the law. "He was legally blind, but he wasn't blind enough to get a benefit," Allen said.
May received a 30 percent disability allowance for losing sight in one eye. That works out to $437 a month right now, May said. But Allen said he could receive 100 percent disability if he were judged blind in both eyes.
Allen said accomplishing that involved changing two words in the law, removing "blind," which had a squishy definition, and replacing it with "legally blind," a specific medical condition.
Allen brought his concern to U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and her then-staffer, Anthony Hardie.
Baldwin introduced a bill which struggled through seven years of the legislative process, with Allen writing letters and making calls each session, trying to get co-sponsors. "If you just keep calling," Allen said, "you hit the right people at the right time."
Allen est imated that 1,000 to 2,000 veterans will be affected by the law, but Hardie, now executive assistant at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, said more young soldiers are coming home Iraq and Afghanistan with eye injuries.
"It was an idea whose time had come," Hardie said.
The Madison hospital is part of a national program to deliver devices to help veterans with low vision master daily living activities, Thliveris said.
"Any veteran who is registered in the VA system that meets the visual impairment criteria" is eligible, he said. "Hundreds of patients will be meet the criteria."
The Madison VA will receive about $400,000 over two years to implement the program, he said.
Helping Blind Veterans
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: D1
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By PATRICIA SIMMS psimms@madison.com 608-252-6492
When Madison ophthalmologist James Allen retired seven years ago and started lobbying for a small change in veterans benefit laws, soldiers hadn't started coming home from Iraq with terrible eye injuries.
Allen's effort, which began on behalf of one disabled World War II veteran, paid off in late December when President Bush signed into law an expansion of benefits for veterans with eye injuries.
"I don't think this bill could have come at a better time," Dr. Andrew Thliveris, chief of ophthalmology at the Veterans Hospital in Madison, said Monday. "There has been a shift in the type of casualties soldiers are experiencing."
Body armor is saving the lives of soldiers in Iraq, Thliveris said, but faces are hard to put in armor - veterans, who may have died before body armor, are surviving but with more severe ocular injuries.
But Allen, now 79, knew only that one of his patients, Donald May, of Lodi, wasn't getting the veterans' benefits to which Allen thought he was entitled.
"I had promised the guy we'd change the law," Allen said. "I had to keep my promise."
May, an 84-year-old retired salesman, lost one eye to shrapnel from a hand grenade in France four days after D-Day. Now, years later, he was losing the sight in his other eye.
In similar situations with other "paired" body parts, May would have been able to receive increased veterans' benefits, Allen said, but the devil was in the definition of "blind" in the law. "He was legally blind, but he wasn't blind enough to get a benefit," Allen said.
May received a 30 percent disability allowance for losing sight in one eye. That works out to $437 a month right now, May said. But Allen said he could receive 100 percent disability if he were judged blind in both eyes.
Allen said accomplishing that involved changing two words in the law, removing "blind," which had a squishy definition, and replacing it with "legally blind," a specific medical condition.
Allen brought his concern to U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and her then-staffer, Anthony Hardie.
Baldwin introduced a bill which struggled through seven years of the legislative process, with Allen writing letters and making calls each session, trying to get co-sponsors. "If you just keep calling," Allen said, "you hit the right people at the right time."
Allen est imated that 1,000 to 2,000 veterans will be affected by the law, but Hardie, now executive assistant at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, said more young soldiers are coming home Iraq and Afghanistan with eye injuries.
"It was an idea whose time had come," Hardie said.
What Allen did was remarkable given the difficulty of changing laws, Hardie said. "What motivated him had nothing to do with anything for him personally," he said. "He just saw an injustice."
Low Vision Program
The Madison hospital is part of a national program to deliver devices to help veterans with low vision master daily living activities, Thliveris said.
"Any veteran who is registered in the VA system that meets the visual impairment criteria" is eligible, he said. "Hundreds of patients will be meet the criteria."
The Madison VA will receive about $400,000 over two years to implement the program, he said.
Submitted by wnpj on Mon, 01/28/2008 - 11:05am.