Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 070, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 11, 2015 Page: 4 of 40
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STATE
4A
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Denton Record-Chronicle
Vet claims officials staged bogus meeting
* _►
m
ometimes in the middle of
the night he wakes with
excruciating seizures in
his legs. Marty Leewright tries to
walk olf the searing pain. But
deadly poisons left in his body
from Agent Orange are slowly
killing him. He served in the Ar-
my in Vietnam.
The Fort Worth lawyer is a
sharper cookie than most. He can
navigate a bureaucracy as well as
anyone I know. But until he pull-
ed his latest stunt, he was another
lost soul of the VA, moving back-
ward, in slow motion, as he tried
to get medical treatment
Medical care? How about can-
celed appointments, altered and
lost records, runarounds, delays,
denials, misinformation, poor
treatment and misdiagnoses?
Now he’s calling out the VA
for using him and other vets as
part of a public relations show to
satisfy the new U.S. secretary of
veterans affairs.
son they can come up with to de-
ny your claims.”
So go over their heads.
One more way
The Watchdog also heard
from Jake Ellzey, a former U.S.
Navy pilot who flies for South-
west Airlines. Ellzey is the vol-
unteer member representing
North Texas on the Texas Veter-
ans Commission.
The TVC has something of
an identity crisis. The commis-
sion has a $26 million annual
budget, but its advertising bud-
get is zero, Ellzey says.
TVC helps vets get VA bene-
fits. But not everyone knows.
Even the commission’s own bro-
chure explains, “Many do not
know help is available.”
So, let me introduce you to
the Texas Veterans Commission.
“We advocate for Texas vets
when dealing with the VA as
well, and that’s particularly re-
warding,” Ellzey tells me in an
introductory phone call. “Our
biggest joy is getting claims tak-
en care of for disabled vets. Most
folks don’t know how to do it.”
Joy. Not a word often associ-
ated with the VA.
“The commission will help
any veteran that comes to them,”
he says. ‘All of us know how hard
it is to work with the VA. I’m not
going to say it’s broken. They do
a lot of good work, but it’s a fed-
eral bureaucracy at its core.”
Last year, the commission
worked with 200,000 vets and
helped bring $3.5 billion in disa-
bility claims back to the state, of-
ficials said.
I’ve shared some simple ide-
as about how lost souls of the VA
can be found. Here’s hoping they
work for more lost souls.
Follow Dave Lieber on Twit-
ter at @Dave Lieber.
S
m
ABOUT THIS
COLUMN
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\
The Watchdog Desk works for
you to shine light on
questionable practices in
business and government. We
welcome your story ideas and
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tips.
Contact The Watchdog
Email:
watchdog@dallasnews.com
Call: 214-977-2952
Write: Dave Lieber, P.0. Box
655237, Dallas, TX 75265
—1-
Dave Lieber
THE WATCHDOG
J
could he do?
The Watchdog shares his tac-
tic with the hope that other vets
who contacted me can do the
same. They reached out after
reading my story of lost soul vet
Rickey Staves. Staves finally got
his VA appeal. Turns out two key
pages from his medical record
that proved his case had gone
missing — but fortunately were
found again, just in time.
I hear you, Raymond D. (The
Watchdog is withholding last
names to protect medical priva-
cy.) like Leewright, you were ex-
posed to dangerous chemicals,
but your appeals were denied.
You’re stuck in a backlog.
Dan H., you submitted three
claims for hearing loss from
your Iraq War service. So far
without success.
Chris T., you’re told that a de-
cision in your case could come in
two years. Ridiculous.
Mark C., they said you no
longer qualify for a VA physical.
David G., you owe the gov-
ernment money for VA compen-
sation offset by military pay. You
can’t find help. You’re close to
homeless.
Karen R., your records show-
ing your injury are lost. You can
only hope they find them.
The VA has well-known
problems. Yet its mission to help
remains strong, VA spokesman
Tom Morley says.
“The Department of Veterans
Affairs is committed to providing
all eligible veterans, service mem-
bers and survivors with their
earned care and benefits,” he tells
The Watchdog. (He offered to re-
search Leewright’s case for me if
the lawyer would sign a privacy
waiver. Leewright declined.)
Cody Duty/AP file photo
Houston Police vehicles respond after a shooting at Texas
Southern University on Friday in Houston.
Houston campus
to increase patrols
after fatal shooting
Lawyer’s move
Let me share how a few
What happened?
Feb. 18. A ‘Veterans Town
Hall.” Fort Worth VA Outpatient
Clinic. Veterans gather in a
room to tell their stories to area
VA officials. A video crew re-
cords the event.
Leewright takes the micro-
phone and shares his problems.
Afterward, VA officials promise
to help. Weeks go by. Crickets.
“I realized that it was all a
horse and donkey show docu-
mented for the higher-ups in
Washington, D.C.,” he says.
“Once again, I felt betrayed by
my own government and once
again abandoned as a Vietnam
Agent Orange combat veteran.”
More like him
After he got a runaround,
Leewright’s lawyer skills kicked
in. He asked himself, what else
weeks ago lawyer Leewright
handled his problem.
“I wrote to the president of
the United States, and I copied
the secretary of veterans affairs,”
he says.
HOUSTON (AP) - Author-
ities pledged increased patrols
Saturday at Texas Southern Uni-
versity following three incidents
of gunfire in less than four days,
including the fatal shooting of a
student.
Houston police spokeswom-
an Jodi Silva identified the stu-
dent as 18-year-old Brent Ran-
dall, a freshman who died Friday
en route to a hospital after being
shot next to a student housing
complex.
Another person was injured
in Friday’s shooting and hospi-
talized. It remains unclear
whether that person is a TSU
student.
Two men were detained, but
Silva declined to say Saturday
whether they’re still being held.
Police are searching for a third
person who they believe was in-
volved.
The gunfire that killed Ran-
dall was preceded hours earlier
by another shooting near the
same housing complex.
No one was believed harmed
in that incident, but afterward,
the university issued a statement
saying the “shooting incidents
on our campus have been ex-
tremely difficult and troubling
for our entire university com-
munity.”
On Tuesday, university police
said a shooting after a poetry
slam on campus injured another
man.
“Then boy, things started
happening, I mean, within five
or six days. I’ve had more ap-
pointments and examinations
in the last three weeks than I had
Administrators promised
that campus security and uni-
versity police will increase pa-
trols. Silva said Houston police
also will boost patrols around
the campus.
She said the latest shooting
generated some confusion for
emergency responders because
it wasn’t immediately clear
whether the housing complex
was on campus. The building
sits on the edge of campus, away
from other structures, she said.
“We weren’t aware until later
whether it was campus property
or not,” she said.
Randall’s death came the
in the last three years.”
One worker at the VA pulled
up his file and told him, “This
came from the president’s office
and also the secretary of the VA.”
And it’s easy enough. Some-
thing that Dan H., Chris T.,
Mark C., David G., Karen R. and
others can do.
Leewright says, “The VA is
like an insurance company to-
day. They are looking at any rea-
f j et An Evaluation by the Expert
A.I. Moryan, M.D., F.A.C.P.
same day as a fatal shooting at
Northern Arizona University,
and about a week after eight stu-
dents and a teacher were fatally
shot at a community college in
Oregon.
4*
e
BOARD CERTIFIED in INTERNAL MEDICINE and in the
fields of DIABETES, ENDOCRINOLOGY and METABOLISM.
O
X’tea°f»/n
“like President Obama says,
this is getting to be too regular,”
Texas Southern President John
Dr. Moryan is a fellow in The American College of Physicians, one
of the greatest honors given to a physician to acknowledge h igh
achievement in clinical and academic medicine.
The Great Being saith: The heaven
is made luminous and
ese
of statesmanship
lendent bu the brightness of
s which hath dawned
Rudley said during a Friday
news conference.
res
P
the light of th
from the dayspring of the Will of God: It beh ooveth
every ruler to weigh his own being every day in the bal-
ance of ecjuity and justice and then to judge between
I them to do that which would direct
their steps unto the path of wisdom and understand-
ing. This is the cornerstone of statesmanship and the
essence thereof. From these words every enlightened
f wisdom will readily perceive that which wi II fos-
Irare, security and protection
fety of human fives.
blessed word
Dr. Moiyan has finished his fellowship in the Lahey Clinic, New England Deaconess
(Harvard Program) in the field of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 070, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 11, 2015, newspaper, October 11, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124936/m1/4/?q=architectural+drawings: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .