BARTOW — Mike Mason knew the Vietnam veteran’s widow deserved better.
Mason, Polk County’s
manager of Veteran Services, met the woman when she came into his office
hoping to receive federal Veterans Affairs benefits. Her husband had
died of a heart attack 10 years earlier, and she thought his death might
have been linked to his service-related disability.
The
veteran had been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, and his
exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam made it a
service-connected condition. The out-of-state death certificate,
however, did not mention that underlying illness.
As a result, the woman didn’t apply for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
“This lady lived for 10 years on a shoestring, just barely getting by,” Mason said.
Mason
and his staff helped the woman file a new claim with support from a
local doctor, and eventually she received a bank deposit of about
$29,000 from the VA to cover her decade of missed benefits.
But Mason didn’t stop there.
He
began a two-year campaign that led to a revision in Florida’s death
certificate process. An electronic form used by funeral directors was
modified in February to add information about health conditions related
to military service, making it easier for family members of veterans to
file claims for benefits.
Florida
is the first state to gather information about veterans’
service-related health conditions and share it with doctors before death
certificates are issued, say Mason and others involved with the policy.
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