Another Lejeune vet gets VA disability related to contaminated water




June 22, 2010 7:25 AM

HOPE HODGE

A Marine veteran from Hampden, Mass., is the latest in a series of former Camp Lejeune residents to get full or partial disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs related to exposure to contaminated water aboard the base.

Thomas McLaughlin, 68, received a 30-percent disability grant in April for kidney cancer that more likely than not resulted from his residence aboard Lejeune’s Camp Geiger in 1962, according to the VA. He was honorably discharged from the Corps as a staff sergeant in 1969, and was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.

McLaughlin attributes his successful claim to the work of his late wife, Sally, who hired law firm Nixon-Peabody, made contact with doctors and lobbied various Washington, D.C. offices on behalf of her husband and all veterans affected by the volatile organic solvents and benzene that polluted base residential drinking water between the 1950s and 1980s. Sally McLaughlin died suddenly in January of stomach cancer; McLaughlin said he does not know whether or not her illness was water-related as well.

He told the Daily News Tuesday that he was pleased with his victory and wants to spread the word about aid available to affected veterans as far as he can.
“I want to let everybody possible know, because that's what our intent was to begin with,” McLaughlin said. “There's a lot of men and women who might have this insidious parasite in their body and might not even know it.”

In spite of his struggles, McLaughlin said he bears no ill will against the Marine Corps.
“At this point in my life, getting angry or feeling badly doesn't do much good,” he said. “You just have to play the cards that are dealt.”
Gregory Deschenes, the lawyer who assisted with McLaughlin’s claim after it was first denied by the VA last year, said strong medical support and a doctor’s opinion helped his client join the handful of water contamination victims to receive related VA benefits.
“Both Mr. Mclaughlin and his late wife really pursed the claim,” he said. “I thought it was a great result for him, and I was very pleased with it.”
A May Environmental Protection Agency review of Lejeune contaminant TCE found it to be a human carcinogen, while a lengthy report by the President’s Cancer Panel earlier that month linked solvents TCE and PCE to cancer in base residents. The chemicals have been most closely linked to lung, breast, bladder, and kidney cancer, as well as multiple myeloma and a number of other non-cancer conditions.

Local advocate of Lejeune contamination victims Jerry Ensminger said that, although VA water claims are granted on a case-by-case basis, he expects to see an influx of granted claims related to Lejeune water and the above conditions, based on the new findings.
“I think the headquarters for the Veterans Administration should have a set policy for their regional offices to follow on this Camp Lejeune issue,” Ensminger said.

Last September, John Hartung of Waukesha, Wis., was awarded 30-percent disability for cysts and chronic fatigue related to water exposure. In March, Braintree, Mass., resident Paul Buckley received full compensation for a rare and largely incurable blood disease, multiple myeloma. Previous claim grants, Ensminger said, have been given to veterans suffering cancer of the hard palate, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and metastatic kidney cancer.