Online Petition Now Available to Establish the “Elmo Zumwalt Mesothelioma Treatment & Research Center” - Please Sign Now!

In our Veteran’s Day "Call to Arms" post, we addressed the Federal Government’s failure to adequately care for veterans diagnosed with service-related mesothelioma, who account for one-third of Americans who get this deadly disease.

In the weeks that have followed, we have sent letters to our friends, clients and clients’ families enlisting their support in the effort to get the VA to fund the “Elmo Zumwalt Mesothelioma Treatment and Research Center” which will provide world-class treatment to veterans around the country and conduct much-needed research into cures and treatment advances that will benefit all persons suffering from this disease, not just vets.

Our thanks go out to everyone who has forwarded the letters to their senators and congresspersons. Additional packets are being sent out as we speak. If you haven’t sent the letters, please do so as soon as possible. If you want additional copies of the letters to have friends of family send, let us know and we’ll send more!

We’re pleased to report that the Pacific Meso Center has now joined the effort to garner much-needed public support for this worthy cause by establishing an online petition to “Help Veterans Stricken with Service-Connected Mesothelioma.”

Even if you have already sent the letters that were issued by our office, we urge you to sign the Pacific Meso Center’s online petition. The Federal government has ignored this problem for decades. We need to do everything we can to let them know what an insult their continued inaction is to the vets who have and will continue to suffer from service-related mesothelioma.

"We encourage everyone to sign this petition and to send it out to their friends and family via email, Twitter and Facebook", said Clare Cameron, Executive Director of The Pacific Meso Center.  "With enough signatures we can make a change and get the Admiral Zumwalt Center for Mesothelioma Excellence funded, and give our veterans suffering with mesothelioma a fighting chance".

So please sign the petition now! It will take you less than a minute. 

Please also visit:  PMC Lays Foundation at West LA VA’s Comprehensive Mesothelioma Center to Launch New Center of Mesothelioma Excellence

Veterans Day Surprise Coming From Congress?

Written by Susan Vento and Judy Van Ness

This article was originally posted November 10, 2013, on chillicothegazette.com

On Monday, Americans will observe Veterans Day. Some people will observe it with a day off from work or checking out the special Veterans Day sales at department stores. But the real meaning of the day should be to think about the great sacrifices of the men and women who deserve to be honored. Instead, these same honorable men and women might be dishonored by a Congressional vote next week on the Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency Act.

Asbestos, a known human carcinogen that has killed millions of people during the past several decades, has not been banned in the U.S. It remains a threat to Americans in our homes, schools and workplaces, and about one-third of all victims are veterans. Disasters such as 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy exposed many more people to asbestos dangers. Meanwhile, experts estimate that about 10,000 people die in the U.S. every year as a result of exposure to asbestos.

We watched our husbands die from mesothelioma, caused by asbestos. Former Rep. Bruce Vento died from mesothelioma 13 years ago, after being exposed to asbestos in three different worksites while working his way through college to become a junior high science teacher on the east side of St. Paul, Minn. Richard Van Ness died Aug. 30, 2012. His exposure began while serving in the forward engine room on the USS Charles R. Ware destroyer (1968-1971). Both men served their country with distinction and died needlessly. This makes us do everything we can to fight for other victims and families.

The FACT Act is a cruel twist on a cruel disease, one that blames the victims for whatever meager compensation they might receive for lives cut dramatically short. It blames families that have to watch loved ones struggle to take their final breaths and smears them by saying they get too much. It is no more than blatant catering to the highly-financed interests of the asbestos industry, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the National Chamber of Commerce and Georgia Pacific, owned by the Koch brothers. It is not about transparency at all.

Instead, the FACT Act would require the unbelievable disclosure on a public website of asbestos victims’ personal information, including the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, financial information, information about their children and other sensitive data that could subject victims and their families to identity theft and possible criminal victimization. The bill is completely lopsided — asbestos companies have no such “transparency” requirements. It passed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee 17-14 in the spring with the committee refusing to hear from victims and families who will be affected by the bill's exposure of their personal information.

The bill’s supporters mistakenly claim it is needed to prevent fraud by asbestos victims when filing claims to company trusts and accuse the asbestos victims of ripping off the system. The asbestos company trusts were structured to enable the companies responsible for the lethal poisoning of workers to use bankruptcy reorganization to continue operating.

The Government Accountability Office analyzed many company trusts and found no evidence of fraud. Instead, a recent newspaper investigation of claims found only 0.35 percent of “anomalies” and those included clerical errors by the claims administrators of the company trusts.

If anyone is getting ripped off, it’s the asbestos victims and their families. The Rand Institute found the median payment is 25 cents on the dollar to asbestos victims, with some payments as low as 1.1 percent of the claim filed. H.R. 982 victimizes all asbestos victims, including veterans, exposing them to identity theft and further harm.

Susan Vento, widow of former Rep. Bruce F. Vento, D-Minn., and Judy Van Ness, widow of Richard Van Ness, are with the Asbestos Cancer Victims’ Rights Campaign.

Veterans’ Day 2013---A “Call to Arms” to Help Veterans Stricken with Service-Connected Mesothelioma

In prior years, Worthington & Caron, P.C., has used Veterans’ Day as an opportunity to acknowledge and pay tribute to military veterans who have contracted mesothelioma from service-related exposures to asbestos. Indeed, as many of you know, approximately one-third of Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma were exposed in the military.

This year, in addition to offering kind words of acknowledgment and gratitude, we would like to offer asbestos-exposed vets something much more important. Something they really need. Something that’s long over-due. This year we want to take action to get the US Government to effectively treat vets stricken with service-related mesothelioma. And we want you to join us.

Here’s the deal: The West Los Angeles VA Medical Center has taken an important first step to improve the treatment of asbestos-exposed vets by establishing a first-of-its-kind “Mesothelioma Center of Excellence.” The Center offers patients access to some of the most innovative and effective treatments from one of the nation’s leading mesothelioma specialists. The problem is that the Mesothelioma Center of Excellence remains a virtual secret even to this day.

Officials at the West LA VA have been asked to do a better job of educating VA doctors and vets about the Mesothelioma Center of Excellence. They have also been asked to expand the Center so it can provide its unsurpassed level of treatment to greater numbers of vets and conduct research and clinical trials that will benefit ALL patients, vets and non-vets, who are diagnosed in the future.

The West LA VA officials we have spoken with have enthusiastically agreed that these requests have merit. They have agreed to work with pathologists nationwide to refer patients to the West LA VA. But, for reasons that are unclear, the VA has not even updated its website to include information about the existing program, nor have they agreed to fund an expanded program.

How many news stories have we seen about our vets being subjected to deplorable conditions and inferior treatment at VA medical centers across the country? The Mesothelioma Center at the West LA VA is a shining example of vets receiving a level of treatment that is unsurpassed by the nation’s most prestigious private hospitals. But when vets are deprived of this treatment simply because doctors in the VA system don’t know about the Mesothelioma Center of Excellence, the results are no less upsetting. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Families of veterans who are casualties of mesothelioma are strongly behind this effort. The family of Navy Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who died of mesothelioma in 2000, has agreed to lend their name to the expanded program. The new center would be called the “Elmo Zumwalt Mesothelioma Treatment & Research Center.” Other families have pledged financial support to kick-start the program, including a pledge of $500,000 from the family of John Johnson, a Marine infantryman who lost his battle with mesothelioma in 2012.

Now we need your help.

Our firm is reaching out to clients and their families urging them to send letters to their senators and congressman or congresswoman demanding that they get the VA to do two simple things: 1) Get the word out to VA doctors and vets about the Mesothelioma Center of Excellence at the West LA VA—at a minimum, update the VA website to include information about the Center, and 2) Provide the modest funding needed to expand the program into the “Elmo Zumwalt Mesothelioma Treatment & Research Center” with the capacity to treat greater numbers of vets and conduct research and clinical trials that will benefit ALL patients, vets and non-vets.

Next week our firm will be sending out suggested letters to your US Senators and Representative. Please sign and send them. Also, please follow up with emails and phone calls. If you don’t receive our mailing, or are eager to take action today, please contact us at 800-831-9399 or info@worthingtoncaron.com so we can help get you started.

Whether for a loved one, or for any of the thousands of veterans who have suffered because of the asbestos they were exposed to while defending our freedom—let’s do this!  Not only will a clinical trial and research program directly benefit all vets no matter where they live, the lessons learned stand to benefit ALL patients diagnosed with asbestos-related mesothelioma

Our veterans have done their duty. We’re asking the VA to do theirs.

In honor of Veterans’ Day 2013, please join us in this effort.

--Roger Worthington & John Caron