This story was picked up in a lot of tweets this afternoon --
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/08/24/news/top/doc4a92c91d18d5b559829956.txt
1,200 veterans wrongly told they have ALS
By The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- At least 1,200 Gulf War veterans across the country have been mistakenly notified by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from a fatal neurological disease.
National Gulf War Resources Center Vice President Denise Nichols says panicked veterans from Alabama, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming have contacted her group.
The letters dated Aug. 12 were intended to notify veterans who have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, of disability compensation benefits available to them.
Calls to the VA were not immediately returned Monday.
Nichols said the VA is blaming a coding error for the mistake.
ALS is a rapidly progressive disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.
Perhaps this horrible mistake will get raise the awareness of how difficult it is to have faith that ALS is identified correctly in medical and death records as G12.2. It should.
VA folks might want to hang out at alsspreadtheword.blogspot.com...
http://alsspreadtheword.blogspot.com/2009/08/can-you-find-als.html
Let's hope this story hits a lot of news outlets and turns into an tsunami of awareness as big as the tsunami of terror that hit those veterans and their families.
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