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U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has officially asked the Department of Labor to reopen the medical compensation claim of Michael Fellinger, a former Ames Laboratory worker who died of lung disease in 2008, most likely caused by exposure to radiation as part of his work.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)
In a June 28 letter addressed to Shelby Hallmark, the director of the Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs with the Department of Labor, Harkin requested the case — which has been denied by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program — be reopened and sent to an independent third party for review.
“I believe that this case unfortunately illustrates flaws in the administration of the … program both with regard to the qualification of the District Medical Consultants (DMCs) and with overall adjudication of similar claims,” Harkin says in the letter. District medical consultants are doctors contracted by the program to offer medical opinions on disputed claims.
Harkin told The Iowa Independent in May that he would be intervening on behalf of Fellinger’s widow, Bo Fellinger.
“This is good,” said Fellinger, now a Colorado resident. “It’s a clear encapsulation of everything that has happened thus far. I think this is going to be very helpful.”
“I’m thrilled about this letter,” said Dr. Laurence Fuortes, Fellinger’s medical advocate and director of the University of Iowa Former Worker Medical Screening Program. “It very eloquently and humanely states a rationale behind reopening this claim. I hope Shelby Hallmark is willing and able to meet the request.”
Fellinger worked for the Ames Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., and the Fermi National Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., for periods from 1967 through 1972, where he would have been exposed to a host of toxins, including beryllium, thorium, and asbestos. He first became ill with pulmonary fibrosis in 1993, and contracted esophageal cancer in 2003. While still alive, he applied for compensation for his illnesses through the EEOICP. The first letter denying his claim arrived on the day of his death in 2008, and has been repeatedly denied since then.
Two weeks ago, Fellinger’s widow received yet another blow to her hopes to reopen the case in the form of a letter from the policy branch chief of the EEOICP, Michael Chance.
Despite providing the opinions of four doctors, including one who is a pulmonary pathologist with Mayo Clinic, the Department of Labor found that the medical opinions, “do not constitute new medical evidence which would allow for reopening,” Chance’s letter to Fellinger said.
This latest in a long string of denials was also mailed to Fuortes, who contacted The Iowa Independent about Chance’s letter last week.
“This case has devolved into a pissing match,” Fuortes said. “This case has nothing to do with medical science or justice.”
Harkin’s request is specific: He wants a review by an independent, board certified pulmonologist who hasn’t seen the claim before.
His concerns, according to the letter, are three-fold: that the EEOICP didn’t consult an independent third opinion that is allowed under the program’s guidelines; that at least one similar claim from workers at the Ames Laboratory was compensated, even though Michael Fellinger’s was not; and that the long time delay between toxic exposure and evidence of lung damage was not adequately considered.
Harkin also expressed concern that not all the medical evidence was even weighed.
“…based on (Fuortes’) own Freedom of Information Act requests, it appears that the opinions of other experts and additional medical literature may not have been shared with (the district medical consultant),” the letter states.
Fuortes said the Fellinger case and it’s inconsistencies is only one example of a program that legislators, claimants, and advocates say is in dire need of reform.
At the center of the battle over Michael Fellinger’s claim is the diagnosis of his diseased lungs.
The Department of Labor insists that Fellinger’s lung disease is “idiopathic,” meaning “of unknown cause or origin.”
Fuortes considers this bunk.
“Statistically, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is incredibly rare,” he said. “We’re talking tens per 100,000. If you look at people with Michael’s kind of job history, we’re looking at fibrotic lung diseases occurring at a couple of percent, a thousand-fold increase in occurrence. I think it’s rather difficult, if not impossible, to assume a lack of causality.”
The 20-year time difference between Michael’s employment and the onset of his lung disease remains another reason for the Department of Labor’s dismissal of the claim.
“The DMC (district medical consultant) also noted that the employee’s symptoms first presented themselves in 1993; over 20 years after he had ceased working for the Ames Laboratory, and stated that, had the illness been a result of occupational exposure, these symptoms would have occurred much sooner,” Chance said in his letter.
But referring to the Department of Labor’s own Policy and Procedures manual, the latency period for the conditions over which Fuortes and the DOL officials are having their “pissing match,” fibrosis and pneumoconiosis, are listed non-specifically as “years,” without a range or cut-off. Other lung conditions listed in the manual have listed latency ranges of 5-10 years (silicosis), “years to decades” (silicosis, complicated), 5-30 years (asbestos related conditions), “years” (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and 20-30 years (mesothelioma).
Despite this, the Department of Labor’s district medical examiners have rejected the medical opinions of Fuortes and other qualified medical experts, who say Michael Fellinger’s lung disease likely lay dormant for decades before dealing its fatal blow.
Below is Harkin’s letter:
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