McClatchy DC Logo

Errors at Veterans Affairs delay claim | McClatchy Washington Bureau

×
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Subscriber Services

    • All White House
    • Russia
    • All Congress
    • Budget
    • All Justice
    • Supreme Court
    • DOJ
    • Criminal Justice
    • All Elections
    • Campaigns
    • Midterms
    • The Influencer Series
    • All Policy
    • National Security
    • Guantanamo
    • Environment
    • Climate
    • Energy
    • Water Rights
    • Guns
    • Poverty
    • Health Care
    • Immigration
    • Trade
    • Civil Rights
    • Agriculture
    • Technology
    • Cybersecurity
    • All Nation & World
    • National
    • Regional
    • The East
    • The West
    • The Midwest
    • The South
    • World
    • Diplomacy
    • Latin America
    • Investigations
  • Podcasts
    • All Opinion
    • Political Cartoons

  • Our Newsrooms

News

Errors at Veterans Affairs delay claim

Alison Young - Knight Ridder Newspapers

    ORDER REPRINT →

March 06, 2005 06:00 AM

TRENTON, Mich.—Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs like to say that veterans don't need expert help to file disability claims. That's because the VA is required by law to help them gather all the evidence they need.

But policy and practice are often two different things.

Consider the case of Richard Gudewicz, a Michigan veteran who contracted Hepatitis C in 1974 during a blood transfusion at an Army hospital in Germany.

It took 20 years before the liver disease was diagnosed, forcing doctors to remove his spleen and give him powerful medications that left him fatigued and unable to work as a bricklayer and school custodian.

SIGN UP

In 2000, the VA denied Gudewicz's claim for disability compensation. The Army hospital had long since closed, and the VA said it couldn't find any military medical records archived under Gudewicz's name showing that he'd received a transfusion. His VA-accredited service officer did little to find them, either, Gudewicz said.

"All he did was do the proper forms," said Gudewicz, 52, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Trenton. Those forms and appeals merely kept the claim alive. Gudewicz said he had little chance of winning without proof of the transfusion, which his service officer never found.

In desperation, Gudewicz called the office of his congressman, John Dingell. Shanda Misiolek, then a new constituent service worker for the Michigan Democrat, took on his case. A former teacher, Misiolek had no experience tracking military records and none of the expertise of a well-trained service officer.

Yet she quickly located Gudewicz's hospital charts.

It didn't take any special congressional powers, she said. It just took some research to learn that a veteran's name isn't the only way military medical records are filed. The federal archives also keep medical records under the names of military hospitals.

That's where she found the records Gudewicz needed to prove his case. The VA granted his claim a few months later, in July 2001—two years after he first applied for compensation.

"I tend to take every case to heart," said Misiolek. "I want to make sure they get everything they are entitled to."

While claims experts caution that involving members of Congress can be risky, diverting the VA's attention to corresponding with them rather than processing the claim, Gudewicz said it was the only way to get his due.

"If it hadn't been for Congressman Dingell's office, I wouldn't have gotten anything," Gudewicz said.

VA officials disagree. In a statement, they said the VA eventually would have found Gudewicz's records.

"It is VA's responsibility to assist veterans in obtaining records in federal custody such as service medical records," the statement said. But in this case, VA staff members sent an improperly coded form to the federal archives. "There was an unwarranted delay in this case due to the regional office's error," the statement said.

Related stories from McClatchy DC

news

VA's red tape squelches veterans' long-overdue disability claims

March 02, 2005 03:00 AM

news

World War II pilot battles 5 decades for plane-crash compensation

March 02, 2005 03:00 AM

news

Errors at Veterans Affairs delay claim

March 06, 2005 06:00 AM

news

Victory is hollow for veteran's son

March 06, 2005 06:00 AM

news

After 60 years, veterans' claim recognized

March 06, 2005 06:00 AM

news

Michigan's money to aid veterans goes unregulated

March 06, 2005 03:30 PM

  Comments  

Videos

Trump announces national emergency to get border wall funding

Former astronaut Mark Kelly announces run for Senate

View More Video

Trending Stories

Hawley fights subpoena: ‘The judicial process does not exist to harass public servants’

February 15, 2019 10:35 AM

PAC plans new effort to put a black candidate on the 2020 Democratic ticket

February 15, 2019 12:02 PM

McClatchy editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 11, 2019

February 15, 2019 11:47 AM

On offshore drilling, Mark Sanford and Joe Cunningham find their legacies are linked

February 15, 2019 05:00 AM

McConnell’s opposition to Green New Deal comes as he backs coal

February 15, 2019 02:10 PM

Read Next

On offshore drilling, Mark Sanford and Joe Cunningham find their legacies are linked

Congress

On offshore drilling, Mark Sanford and Joe Cunningham find their legacies are linked

By Emma Dumain

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 15, 2019 05:00 AM

When Mark Sanford was a member of Congress, the Republican fought to ban offshore drilling. His successor, U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-SC, now has a chance to finish the fight that Sanford started.

KEEP READING

MORE NEWS

U.S. looks to send food aid to Haiti as violence brews humanitarian crisis

Politics & Government

U.S. looks to send food aid to Haiti as violence brews humanitarian crisis

February 15, 2019 06:27 PM
All mail-in ballots in Bladen, Robeson were tainted, McCready says in asking for re-do

Midterms

All mail-in ballots in Bladen, Robeson were tainted, McCready says in asking for re-do

February 15, 2019 01:54 PM
Cruz pushes for stiffer gold penalties against Venezuela’s Maduro

Latin America

Cruz pushes for stiffer gold penalties against Venezuela’s Maduro

February 15, 2019 02:38 PM
PAC plans new effort to put a black candidate on the 2020 Democratic ticket

Elections

PAC plans new effort to put a black candidate on the 2020 Democratic ticket

February 15, 2019 12:02 PM
McConnell’s opposition to Green New Deal comes as he backs coal

Congress

McConnell’s opposition to Green New Deal comes as he backs coal

February 15, 2019 02:10 PM
Congressional Democrats bring fight to restore Voting Rights Act to North Carolina

Congress

Congressional Democrats bring fight to restore Voting Rights Act to North Carolina

February 15, 2019 11:39 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

McClatchy Washington Bureau App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Newsletters
Learn More
  • Customer Service
  • Securely Share News Tips
  • Contact Us
Advertising
  • Advertise With Us
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story