VA Case
Mar 01, 2013OUTCOME: $240,000
Brian helped a veteran win a $240,000 settlement with the VA pertaining to his service connected disability claim. The veteran served on a Balao class diesel engine submarine in the Vietnam era. Year ... s later in the late 90's the veteran was diagnosed with a very rare and very lethal form of squamous cell carcinoma in his throat and tongue region of his mouth. The doctors were baffled about the cause. However, they were able to succesfully treat the cancer with a novel form of radiation. The only problem was that the radiation treatment degenerated the veterans brain. His mental capacity quickly deteriorated and he lost his job as a defense contractor engineer designed military aircraft. After fighting the VA for several years, the veteran hired Brian Walker. Brian was able to prove to the VA that the diesel engine on the submarine in which the veteran served aboard and was an engineman in the early '70's, used hexavalent chromium as a cooling material in the cooling water of the engine. That in turn caused carcinogenic hexavalent chromium to be in the engine steam and vapors that would lag in the engine rooms and ultimately be inhaled by the crew of the sub. Brian was able to find a de-classified Naval Research Laboratory report from the early 70's which conceded that Chromium 6 was used in the cooling waters of their various diesel engine vessels and that it needed to be abated because of the carcinogenic effects. Brian was also able to track down the veteran's former oncologists who were both previously baffled about the cause of the veteran's unique cancer, and were more than happy to write very effective affidavits in support of Brian's theory because the doctors believed that they finally figured out what the veteran's cancer was caused from.
