Though many veterans have felt shortchanged by the federal government over the years, Terence Graham of Laird Township has an especially disappointing story to tell.
“Overall, I’m not a fan of Veterans Affairs,” Graham told SooToday.
Though receiving some payments from Veterans Affairs, Graham - who suffers from permanent injuries to both ears suffered as a Royal Canadian Navy sailor - is emotionally devastated after receiving word that he won’t be receiving compensation from the federal government for those injuries.
“I had multiple sets of tubes inserted into my ears since the time that I joined the military in 1990,” Graham said.
“I had chronic infections so they put some tubes into my ears. They pulled me right out of boot camp. It worked like a charm, my ears drained, my hearing was incredible, and then six months later the tubes fell out of my ears.”
“From that moment on, I believe that Veterans Affairs was negligent in their medical care of me because what they did was just keep inserting more tubes.”
“They say that they followed the medical procedures that were available at the time but they never told me of other options that I could have taken that would have prevented the multiple tube insertions and didn’t tell me about the ramifications of doing that to me,” Graham said.
Graham’s ear problems could be a result of exposure to chemicals.
“What I believe happened was, when I was in boot camp, I was instructed to clean out a big cigarette butt can to make it shine. I cleaned it and a couple of days later I felt extremely sick. They sent me to the hospital in Halifax where they determined that I had what’s called eustachian tube dysfunction and I honestly attribute that to cleaning out a butt can.”
Eustachian tube dysfunction occurs when the lining of the tube is swollen, leading to muffled hearing, pain, tinnitus, a feeling of fullness in the ear or problems with balance.
“Unfortunately these tubes never held in my ears and from that point forward they did that exact same procedure every single time to the point where, when I was leaving the Forces in the early 2000s, there was no membrane left in either ear."
Describing himself as ‘disgruntled,’ Graham left the Forces.
He moved to the Sault in 2015.
By that time Graham had filed a claim for his condition, his claim denied twice.
His case then went to a federal panel in 2015.
In 2017, a Sault ears, nose and throat specialist put Graham on antibiotics and was cared for in visits by home care nurses.
The specialist also performed surgery, mounting a tube on the last bit of bone he had in his left ear.
In Sept. 2020, a surgeon at the London Health Sciences Centre inserted a cochlear implant in his right ear.
“The doctor inserted it properly but it doesn’t work great, but I’ve had no more infections in my right ear. My left ear was still heavily infected so in 2021 another ears, nose and throat specialist in the Sault performed surgery and put a new membrane in my left ear, like a sheet that protects my ear. On my right side it’s just a great big hole so I can’t go near water, I can’t swim, I have to watch when I shower.”
While undergoing such physical trauma, Graham’s appeal for compensation sat at Veterans Affairs.
Graham worked with a lawyer with the Bureau of Pension Advocates, a law firm that works with Canada's Department of Veterans Affairs.
The lawyer informed Graham in 2021 that new rules were dealing with negligence by CAF doctors.
The lawyer resubmitted Graham’s claim, informing his client that a successful outcome would be precedent setting.
In early September, 2022, Graham won his case.
“I had put in four separate claims for eustachian tube dysfunction and chronic otitis media in both of my ears.”
Chronic otitis media occurs when fluid remains in the middle ear but without bacterial or viral infection.
“I won a four-fifths award for all four claims,” Graham said.
He said that an ears, nose and throat specialist has backed him up - in writing - in terms of how damaged his ears are.
“They can’t fix my ears anymore. They’re done.”
Graham said the federal government backdated his award to 2019, meaning he would receive three years of retroactive monetary award.
“I was very excited…I had been sitting around for seven years for this decision. The lawyer was very excited. I received this fantastic letter.”
Then came a gut-wrenching turn of events.
“In November I received a letter telling me there would be no change in my disability payment benefits as a result of this decision,” Graham said.
“Now, veterans have to deal with what’s called a Pain and Suffering Compensation index. Veterans Affairs rounds it up or rounds it down. The lawyer put it to me this way, that if you can walk at all, even two steps, you’re Level One, which I am. If you’re in a wheelchair you’re Level Two. If you’re on a stretcher then you’re Level Three. It’s very difficult for any veteran to fill out a quality of life questionnaire because it is not truly reflective of pain and suffering. To get off Level One you have to be wheelchair bound.”
Graham said bureaucrats don’t seem to understand what pain and suffering is and how an injured veteran’s quality of life can be reduced.
“This index allows Veterans Affairs to come to a decision that can actually result in no payment to a veteran.”
“When I received this I was infuriated, not because I didn’t win a financial award but mostly because this demeaned me. Veterans who put in medical claims don’t do so lightly.”
“It is as if my condition means nothing to the government. It would’ve been nice to have received an award but I feel stabbed in the back by this new Pain and Suffering index. It can be a very cruel tool to use in dealing with veterans.”
He added there is a shortage of caseworkers in Veterans Affairs dating back to the former Harper government and that Justin Trudeau’s government has been slow to hire and train more.
“I feel extremely cheapened.”
“It was the coldness of this decision. There was no explanation of how they came to the decision. It’s not signed by anyone and I’ve been trying for weeks now to have somebody find out, but I’ve yet to have anybody show me the math that they used to come to this decision.”
“You cannot, as a veteran, access them. You cannot,” he said of federal government bureaucracy.
“You can only ask somebody on your behalf to contact them for information. It’s so backed up. Veterans are waiting years and years for their cases to come up and I can’t see how that backlog can ever get better if we have the same amount of lawyers and the same amount of panels.”
Graham said that Veterans Affairs has been good to him to an extent over the years, but that he feels more case workers, more lawyers fighting for thousands of cases that are submitted annually and better accessibility to Veterans Affairs are needed.
Since leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, Graham earned a diploma in social work and is looking for work in that field in the Sault and area.
Though no outward damage to his ears can be seen, Graham said “I have inner ear pain daily. I have excruciating tinnitus daily. I have had, over the last 25 years, countless ear infections and many surgeries and now what I’m left with is diminished hearing.”
Graham said he has launched yet another appeal to Veterans Affairs.
“I have no idea how long this appeal will take,” he said.
“It devastated me that the military can just brush off these things and give them such minimal bearing. I know that there are a lot of veterans going through this process.”