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How Much Compensation are we Due?

Parismountain

Senior Member
Messages
181
Location
South Carolina
BP put up 20 billion. How much is our government going to allocate to right the wrong that was done to us? I'll start at a million. Just tax healthy people and send it our way. I want a million for 25 years of playing with the deck stacked against me. Trying to find a doctor since it's all in the head. Paying a CFS specialist with real cash money because insurance won't cover his costs and then the most useful aspect is having a CFS believing professional back up the disability claim so the government has a weak case in fighting to get you off disability. How about my independent medical exam with AT&T Lucent where their doc pulled me back into work saying these people think they have caught a virus, no such virus exists.

The statue of limitations has run out for me to go after these pseudo doctors who have completely persecuted ill people.

They'll give us an aspirin and say now we're healed and go back to work. If they could improve my health by 80% I'd love to work again but I want one of their cush government benefited jobs.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more. Are you listening healthy people out there? We've been screwed and the system was rigged to make our lives a living hell.

I'm in a foul mood about struggling financially for so long. Reparations are due. They made germans view the death camps, we need a perp walk of every CFS denying physcian we've run across to show them what they've done. CDC whistle blower my patooty, jail I say and take your stuff, your house, your retirement. We need an additional form of prison for the criminal idiots.

ahh, that felt better
 

Wonko

Senior Member
Messages
1,467
Location
The other side.
who else is to blame - maybe not all the healthy - just those in positions of power and responsibility - and guess what - those are the ones with money :)

somebody suggested ME cost 20k a year per person (in lost income) - so 25 *20k (minus whatever the benefits system has contributed) seems fair

btw does anyone know where to get large butterfly nets - I fancy a bacon sandwich
 

George

waitin' fer rabbits
Messages
853
Location
South Texas
I don't get it???? Why would we be due anything? Is there some other group of sick people somewhere who have gotten something for being ill?
 

Wonko

Senior Member
Messages
1,467
Location
The other side.
if research/information has deliberatetly been blocked - and the prevailing opinion on this forum seems to be that it has - then the people responisible shoudl be liable - they wont be of course - but they should be
 

Tuha

Senior Member
Messages
638
I also see the point but personelly I dont want the money - I would prefer much more that they would say - Ok we did a mistake and because of it we will put much more money to research now. it is not some thousands dollars what will probably save the rest of my life - it is a good research. Seriosly I think if the things will turn in a good direction - we could and should take advantege of it . it is our right and to force the authorities to put much money to research because of the years of ignorance.
 

Parismountain

Senior Member
Messages
181
Location
South Carolina
I don't get it???? Why would we be due anything? Is there some other group of sick people somewhere who have gotten something for being ill?

Maybe someone else can write this down better than I. That is a good question George, it is so hard to explain to people why an ill CFSer might feel they are due something. I'll take a stab at it.

The CDC put someone in charge who chased down psychological causes of CFS not viral. That cost us years. The patient groups wanted him gone and were ineffective because of whisteblower protections the government installed. What other group of ill people recently have been treated like this by the whole government/medical system? Have you found it easy finding a believing doctor? Here in South Carolina Dr. Lapp told me South Carolina is so backward he feels his conferences for medical professionals is falling on deaf ears. How does something like that happen?

I had surgery last year. I told the anethesiologist I had CFS, NMH, etc and they looked at me like I was from another planet. I told them I didn't fear their ability to put me to sleep but their ability to wake me up. And you know what happened? They had trouble bringing me around. What sets that tone? Was I damaged, I think so. Is there recourse, nope.

George did you have a doctor paid by your company pull you off of disability based on a finding of CFS didn't exist, it's only in people's minds that they think they caught a virus? Hey, that was over 7 years ago, a nice statue of limitations clause has that doctor covered from being sued. He wrote in his report that "unfortunately these patients believe they have been smitten with a virus" and that this can't possibly be the case.

Why am I mad? I do have a virus. That doctor was wrong. They pulled me back from disability from which I got sicker and then I went out again and they gave up. Did that period damage me further? I believe so.

It was the whole tone that was set between the government and doctors and researchers. We all know that being a researcher in CFS land was detrimental to their career. Why was that tone set? Did it damage anyone? I don't know unless you count the years earlier a treatment might have been found.

I break my leg. I tell my doctor. He says it isn't broken. I walk around for years with a broken leg in pain thinking why can't anybody believe me. Oh, sorry your leg is broken. Why do you think you're owed something. Well because I walked around for years on a broken leg, I told you it was broken and you said broken legs don't exist. Gee, we could have set that years ago and you wouldn't have these incurable malformations you've developed now. Wow, thanks for telling me that.

Are all the denied CFSers for SSD out there, are they due nothing more than back SSD? Did people lose their homes and posessions fighting to get a benefit?

I agree it's hard to explain. It boils down to nobody believed us, we were right, they set up a defective system, didn't pay to research the real cause of this illness, made it difficult to qualify for disability, had the medical professionals scoff at us, made researching this illness a dead end job killing profession.

I'm remembering even further back now, I was pulled back to work based on that IME AND they made me get psych counseling because I was affected by a virus I knew I had and they didn't believe existed. Any harm done?

Apparently so since I'm so dang blasted angry over the lost years.
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
I totally understand the anger but I suppose the way I look at it is maybe I and millions of others have had to suffer in order that those coming behind us don't. Its just how life pans out, for instance what about the men suffering from PTS who were executed in WW1, we know about the illness now, then the powers that be truly believed they were cowards.
I too lost my job, career, friends,social life like many on here, and am a virtual prisoner in my home.
But it makes it all too complicated for my brain to think of compensation, I just want a proper diagnosis and treatment, like you I knew all along I had a virus, but I also believed the docs when they said I had acid reflux etc etc etc etc and trailed down multiple dead ends.
Knowing we will all be spared these stupid stabs at diagnosis from bewildered out of their depth docs will be compensation enough for me. I just hope that for all of us this news will have come in time to save us from this illness making us any worse, and we can have some chance of recovery in the future.
 

jimbob

ME/CFS84-XMRV+
Messages
321
Location
myrtle beach, s.c.
Good points Parismountain, i'm from S.C. also and yes they are a little behind the times. Luckily, I lived in mass. when I got sick in 84 and ended being seen by DR. Gantz (Gantz and Komoroff were diagnosing CFS). Got my diag in 85 and stopped working in 86 and with the help of Dr. Gantz I got soc scrty disability spring of 87 and still have it now. Sued the place I worked for not accomadating me due to my illness, and received a settlement through the Mass.Commission against discrimination. Sometimes you just have to stand up and fight!
 

Forbin

Senior Member
Messages
966
I don't get it???? Why would we be due anything? Is there some other group of sick people somewhere who have gotten something for being ill?

I believe that Dr. Peterson mentioned in his presentation to the CFSAC that he had already been contacted by several lawyers following the annoucement of the findings in the Science paper.

This may have been in relation to the idea of people continuing to be exposed by blood transfusion after the threat of infection should have been appreciated. I don't know if people (hemophiliacs, for example) were able to successfully make that case in relation to HIV.

Groups of sick people have been compensated by corporations in product liability cases. Asbestos induced malignant mesothelioma is one example.
 
Messages
14
Location
Newry, Northern Ireland
I too have travelled the road of lost career,disbelief, friends in fact a lost life to M.E. for 11 years. I have spent every penny and more from my ill health pension lump sum on trying to get better. Of course we are going to feel anger and indeed every other emotion possible as the story of XMRV unfolds. It would not be possible for any government to finanically compensate our loses. If we could just have ' the powers that be' who all decided we were mentally ill or lying to admit their mistake and now fund the much needed research and to allow us to have the benefits we deserve to keep going until treatment becomes available.
I am more angry with the charlatons who promised us a cure and made money out of our suffering. The Lightning Process comes to mind and if there is any way I can ever retrieve my 880.00 wasted on that fiasco I will do it! I can't wait to see all the M.E. CURE empires crumbling down around them!
 

Doogle

Senior Member
Messages
200
George did you have a doctor paid by your company pull you off of disability based on a finding of CFS didn't exist, it's only in people's minds that they think they caught a virus? Hey, that was over 7 years ago, a nice statue of limitations clause has that doctor covered from being sued. He wrote in his report that "unfortunately these patients believe they have been smitten with a virus" and that this can't possibly be the case.

Get the XMRV test, reapply, and sue the Co. for back payments on the disability. I think you would have a good chance. IMO I have to move on. It took the Japanese American citizens about 50 years to be reimbursed by the US for being wrongly interned. I don't have that amount of time left.
 

hvs

Senior Member
Messages
292
Well, crappy doctors can justifiably say they were just following standard practice across the country and world to attribute CFS to somatization. Case closed.
On the other hand, it looks like that will NOT be an excuse after a couple more years of science papers and clinical experience. Then it will be negligence.
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
I have been denied LTD disability eventhough my treating doctor wrote and told them I am unable to work because of diagnosis of
CFS.
The LTD Insurance Co. denied my appeal based on "independant paper reviewing experts" telling them that I can work full time.
They have played these games with too many people for too long and gotten away with it.
It's time for them to be accountable for monetary back pay and for bad faith mental anguish of the patients.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
The closest example I can think of for this (and there are probably better ones out there) is how Hemophiliacs are being (mis)treated over infections in contaminated blood. Here's a recent update on the UK and Ireland. The UK compensation is still being fought in the courts and is not decided.

U.K. Government Is Reviewing Blood Contamination Compensation
An award-winning composer who contracted HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated National Health Service (NHS) blood products has won a legal challenge against the British government over compensation payments for those who have contracted blood-borne illnesses via NHS treatment, The Times Online reports.

Andrew March, 36, who is living with hemophilia, sought a judicial review to counter the U.K. health secretary’s May 2009 decision to not fully compensate Britons who contracted illnesses through contaminated blood. An independent inquiry had recommended that these Britons receive compensation on the same level as the victims of a recent blood contamination scandal in Ireland. In that case, people received an average of 750,000 ($1.1 million) if they contracted hepatitis C and up to 101,000 ($154,939) if they contracted HIV.

http://www.poz.com/articles/HIV_hepatitisC_contamination_1_18303.shtml

(note that these are smaller amounts of patients and they were infected in the 70's and 80's)
 

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
I have been denied LTD disability eventhough my treating doctor wrote and told them I am unable to work because of diagnosis of
CFS.
The LTD Insurance Co. denied my appeal based on "independant paper reviewing experts" telling them that I can work full time.
They have played these games with too many people for too long and gotten away with it.
It's time for them to be accountable for monetary back pay and for bad faith mental anguish of the patients.

I suspect that the insurance providers will be the first target. I know that they denied A LOT of people coverage.