Ill Airman Loses Fight For Medical Benefits

The USAF might be in the right legally, but this makes them look really bad. People will think that the USAF can spend billions on weapon systems, but they won't take care of a sick airman. Bad idea!

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Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News


The Air Force has decided that a Lackland AFB recruit diagnosed with cancer will be discharged without the right to receive military medical care — a decision that leaves him facing an uncertain future as he leaves San Antonio today.

Airman Basic Joseph Weston, treated at Wilford Hall Medical Center after being diagnosed last summer with a rare form of pediatric leukemia, had sought to receive a discharge that would qualify him for medical and retirement benefits.

A Pentagon panel that spent months evaluating the matter, however, ruled against Weston, saying he had a pre-existing condition. He will now be treated at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., but an Air Force spokesman acknowledged that the military's decision puts Weston in a dicey position.

“I think if left to the decision of what is the ... best thing for Joseph Weston, the best thing for Joseph Weston would probably be to continue to receive medical care at Wilford Hall,” Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis said Wednesday. “The issue is really that we're not in the position to be able to provide that based on the determination of his pre-existing medical condition, and the law and (Defense Department) regulations.”

The decision ends Weston's brief Air Force career and raises questions of how he will continue expensive treatment that will run for years. He came to Lackland last summer but quickly faltered in physical training. After undergoing a battery of tests, Weston, 21, learned he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia — a disease typically seen in 3- and 4-year-old children.

Weston sought a discharge that would allow him to receive government-covered chemotherapy treatment for the next three years. A medical/honorable discharge also could help him receive a 100 percent disability rating that would qualify him for medical retirement benefits.

“Obviously we're disappointed in the final decision by the evaluation board because they still claim it was a pre-existing condition,” Jim Weston, the airman's father, said Wednesday. “Until we know what benefits Joe will have for medical coverage, Medicaid or VA, we're concerned that it might be limited.”

Lackland spokesman Kirk Frady said Weston would be discharged today. Weston will receive one last treatment at Wilford Hall this morning before his care shifts to the DeVos hospital, which is about 90 minutes from his home in Cadillac, Mich. His first treatment there will take place next week and be identical to the regimen at Lackland, which the elder Weston said treated his son “very generously over the last several months.”

“He won't skip a beat at this time,” Jim Weston said. “It's kind of depending on Medicaid picking up the payment. We don't know the limitations of Medicaid or Medicare.”

A Wilford Hall doctor had argued that Joseph Weston had fallen ill only after starting basic training at Lackland, but a San Antonio-based evaluation board ruled that he was sick before coming to boot camp. It ordered him dismissed from duty with an administrative discharge — making him ineligible for medical and retirement benefits.

Weston continued to receive treatment at Wilford Hall while appealing the decision to a pair of other boards in the ensuing months.

“There were four levels of review which included docs looking at this, and through that review process they determined that given the symptoms he exhibited — given the very short length of time he had been in service before he began exhibiting symptoms during basic training — that it was a pre-existing condition,” Sholtis said.

Weston could not be reached for comment.

Under the decision by the Secretary of the Air Force Personnel Council, Weston will receive a medical separation under honorable circumstances. The discharge will not grant disability compensation, but he could still receive medical care from the Veterans Affairs Department, which must still review his case.

“There's really no good decision in this case,” Sholtis said. He pointed to the long review process as proof “that no one is intentionally trying to be callous or not take away the difficulties of the situation. In making a decision, it's just tough decisions are forced upon us sometimes, and this is one of them.”