milnews.ca said:
First and foremost, I think Mr. Franklin deserves a helluva lot more than he's received. At the same time, I don't believe that the vilification of VAC is going to help matters. All that does is get a pile of angry guys ranting and raving and spawning stories of "I have a buddy who got royally screwed by VAC blah blah blah" and it feeds the rumour mill and fills peoples heads with all sorts of myth and BS when it comes to VAC. One of the more popular ones being "VAC always declines first pension applications in the hopes you'll get frustrated and give up to save the Government money". This myth needs to be added to Snopes as a big FALSE. Pensions get awarded to the Veteran who has a diagnosis and medical records and CF98's to back up their pension claim. The bulk of pension denials come from a lack of medical documentation to tie the claimed condition to service - i.e the soldier who "sucks it up and soldiers on" without going to the UMS and then is stymied when he shows up to VAC looking for a pension but there's no paper trail in his med docs to award him a pension he deserves. Too many myths have become truths in the minds of soldiers and Veterans because of misinformation and stories told that slants the readers/listeners minds against VAC. So, don't come back on me raging about how dare I question this mans dealings with VAC, I am about to shine some light on a (in my opinion) very short blog that is a Veteran venting his frustrations against VAC. I say again, in my opinion, Mr. Franklin deserves at least a million dollars per leg, but I don't make those decisions but I also think the other side of the coin should be shown.
I've read this blog he posted, but this also raises a few other head scratchers - this directly from his blog piece;
"After returning in 2006, the Department of Defence (DoD) did amazing things and worked tiredly on the issue and where VAC (Veterans' Affairs) failed to deliver they stepped up. Upon my retirement "my file" of course went to VAC and to quote a great writer "and this is where my trouble began."
Now again, it's rather cloudy as it is a condensed article roughly outlining some of the hoops this guy has had to jump through, but I am being forced to use educated guesswork to fill in missing pieces. "After returning in 2006..." I am assuming that this "returning" was his repatriation after being wounded in Afghanistan, "Department of Defence did amazing things and worked tirelessly on the issue and where VAC failed to deliver, they stepped up"
He acknowledges DND did amazing things for him upon his return, and that VAC somehow failed him. Well.... VAC has no right to do anything for him at that point. As long as a member is still serving, VAC cannot do SFA for a Veteran aside from granting him a pension. (He could have received VIP services at the time he was wounded, now it's DND's responsibility to provide VIP services for still serving members.) Their hands are tied! DND damned well SHOULD have done amazing things for him - the man lost his legs, I would expect nothing less than DND doing all they can to help this man and they had an obligation to do so. However, he says "where VAC failed to deliver, they stepped up." Well, there really wasn't much VAC COULD have done for him aside from granting him a pension (and possibly VIP services at the time). Acknowledgement of his wounds and a pension, but after that, a still serving member is DND's responsibility to provide ALL medical care and aids for daily living, not VAC's, even if you have a pension. Once he releases from the Forces, THEN it falls to VAC to provide anything he needs that is in relation to his pensioned condition. There NEVER should have been a bun fight over who pays for his wheelchair - if he was still serving (as I am believing he was since it doesn't say but is highly unlikely he was medically released that quickly after he was wounded.) DND was responsible to pick up the tab, not VAC. The fact there was a bun fight over this contradicts the comment that DND did amazing things..... no, DND from the sounds of it, tried fluffing off their responsibility to provide him with a wheelchair that he desperately needed, and still does.
The second time he lost his wheelchair, and I quote directly from his blog;
"The second was just last year when upon getting a new chair it was felt by VAC that I didn't get the appropriate paperwork -- which was a doctor's note saying "Due to transformal amputations, Paul Franklin needs a new wheelchair."
Again, there's cloudiness here. At a glance, this is disgusting treatment. No doubt exists Mr. Franklin needs a wheelchair and he damned certainly shouldn't have to pay for it either, but, playing some devil's advocate and the fact that I took a job at VAC after my own medical release, I have some knowledge as to how some processes work - I'm not saying I know all the details of his case, all I know is the information provided in this blog here, and as I mentioned, at a glance, this is unacceptable treatment of him on VAC's part. However, VAC has clear cut policies and directives on aids for daily living such as wheelchairs, CPAP machines, hearing aids etc etc. I'm merely GUESSING here, but from the information provided, it appears that Mr. Franklin obtained a scrip from his doctor saying he requires a wheelchair. Check. No argument there. From that point he says " it was felt by VAC that I didn't get the appropriate paperwork -- which was a doctor's note saying "Due to transformal amputations, Paul Franklin needs a new wheelchair." Ok, but it doesn't say what happened between getting that doctors scrip and what transpired thereafter.
Educated guessing, but it appears that after obtaining the scrip, Mr. Franklin went to a provider and ordered a wheelchair as per his doctors scrip. Also guessing, but he may have even paid for it out of his own pocket and then tried going to VAC for re-imbursement. If this is the case, of course VAC wouldn't have paid for it. Or perhaps he ordered the wheelchair, then when it arrived, tried going to VAC to pay for it without paying out of pocket. Either way, once he had gotten a doctors note, he should have gone straight to VAC with that scrip, they would have sent out an Occupational Therapist to his home for a full assessment of his needs. Maybe he has 2 floors and needs a chair lift installed, a custom bathtub he could get in and out of with ease.... The O.T then would have done up a full assessment and submitted it, then Mr. Franklin would have been called by VAC to tell him he needs to bring in at least 2 different quotes from 2 providers and his wheelchair would have been taken care of by VAC. Again, I'm doing guesswork to fill in HUGE holes here, but I guarantee that if a Veteran shows up at VAC with a scrip for a wheelchair, walker, scooter etc etc., the process will get done to ensure they get the aids they need. It just sounds like a very unfortunate mix up that caused Mr. Franklin distress he didn't need. Perhaps he was not informed on the proper process to obtain a wheelchair from VAC once he was released from the CF. That would be completely understandable and a logical explanation as to how this occurred in the first place, but the information on services ought to have been on hand at a SCAN seminar when he was releasing. Or... maybe this was all VAC's fault from the get-go, but I think there's more here than is revealed. Fact is, we'll never know. When we believe we've been wronged, the story we share is the story that will garner the most support for our cause. I'll say this again though, regardless of all I've written, this shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay what this man has endured. I have all the respect in the world for him, and his statement to finish that blog on not being willing to take a call from the MVA was a move beyond selfless class. He puts others before himself and in my opinion, the price he paid deserves to be given priority. I just feel there's more to some things than meets the eye and I just wanted to point out a glance at the flip side of the coin.
