Trying to make a life
After a battlefield injury, endless challenges
The VA awards compensation for a disabled soldier's loss in earnings capacity, but the system is enormously complex. The schedule of ratings for specific disabilities runs well over 100 pages. These ratings assign percentages for specific problems--loss of the use of a nonpredominant hand, for instance, is 60 percent. Congress assigns a dollar amount to each percentage: 60 percent is $817 a month, tax free. The assigned amounts range from $106 a month for a 10 percent disability to $2,239 for 100 percent disabled, though the most seriously disabled are eligible for additional amounts up to $6,404 a month, plus extra help for attendants. Is that enough? "Those catastrophically wounded on the battlefield, we can never do enough for them," says Principi. "It may be calculated on loss of earnings capacity, but to me, there's more to it than that." Soldiers are not permitted to take both the military and VA compensation awards; most opt to take the VA payments because they are tax free and often more generous than the med board's awards. Still, the VA's system is subjective, and veterans service organizations say the VA's 57 regional offices interpret the ratings system differently. Veterans can, however, appeal those decisions, often successfully.
The application process is also complicated. The VA has reduced its backlog of disability claims, but 300,000 claims still are pending. The average processing time is 156 days, the agency says, down from 241 in 2002. So far, more than 26,600 vets from Iraq and Afghanistan have filed disability compensation claims; of those, more than 9,700 are pending. To Mayorga, the money is small consolation: "I'd rather have my fingers and my hand back than the money," he says. And his dream of citizenship has not yet become a reality. Even though President Bush has ordered expediting citizenship for active-duty soldiers, Mayorga still is not a U.S. citizen despite his concerted efforts. The medic wants to return to college to study occupational or physical therapy next spring, and he nurses the hope that he can remain associated with the military.
John Adams is making progress. He came home to his modest house in Miramar, Fla., on Oct. 25, 2003, after several weeks at Walter Reed and intensive therapy at a VA hospital in Tampa, part of the military's national network of brain-injury centers. Today a hospital van transports him to the VA hospital in Miami twice a week. Speech therapist Daphne Santa has been teaching Adams how to speak again. She gives him exercises in raising his pitch, breathing, and emphasizing certain words. In one exercise, he has to try to convey various emotions. Over time, his voice will get smoother, but it will always sound a little strange. Down the road, Adams will take a five-hour memory evaluation so doctors can better understand his brain damage.
He is adjusting to the stark changes in his life. He takes powerful antiseizure medication and must be careful not to shift the metal in his head. He can't drive anymore, and alcohol is out of the question because it makes him depressed.
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