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NEW ZEALAND: Old Digger Has 50 Years Of Misery - And $7 A Week Compo By DEIDRE HENZELL - Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand 10 October 2004 Stanley Livingstone got $7 a week for 50 years as compensation for the amoebic dysentery he caught in Egypt in World War II. Now the 80-year-old Wellington veteran is fighting a legal battle to get recognition for his wrecked health. The test case against Accident Compensation Corporation could pave the way for other war veterans including Vietnam vets suffering the consequences of Agent Orange, to get compensation. Livingstone contracted amoebic dysentery while serving in Egypt in 1945, but was diagnosed and treated only 10 years later. He also spent time at Hiroshima in Japan soon after the atomic bomb destroyed the area. He blamed poor health on his time at war. His claim for a work-related gradual process injury was rejected by ACC and an appeal in the Wellington District Court in May failed. His lawyer, ACC legal expert John Miller, is now appealing to the high court. "Our case is about giving these people, these old diggers, these people who are disadvantaged, what they deserve," he said. The key issue was whether a person was entitled to compensation for a personal injury suffered as a result of working prior to ACC's introduction in 1974. Miller argued that the law covered people who became sick from their work conditions before 1974. ACC claimed it applied to people who became ill after 1974. "It's a question of law that needs to be sorted out," said Miller. Livingstone's wife, Marion, said her husband's health had been poor ever since the war. "When he came back to New Zealand, he was still carrying the infection, but no-one knew what was wrong with him. He went to five or six doctors, but amoebic dysentery was unknown in New Zealand." He was very unwell with fevers, dysentery and general malaise, eventually having a nervous breakdown, she said. Finally, he saw a doctor in 1955, who immediately diagnosed his condition and hospitalised him. Medication to treat the dysentery gave him serious heart problems and led to him needing open-heart surgery. Livingstone tried to get a war pension in 1955, but was told he did not qualify. About five years ago, he discovered he had been entitled to it and was classified as suffering a 95% disability. He was awarded backpay, but it was based on the amount of money earned at the time, equalling $7 a week for the 50 years since diagnosis. He eventually won a further $400 for the 10 years with dysentery. "A lot of this is very unfair to the veterans," his wife said. "I think how they've treated the vets is scandalous." He is nearly blind, has Parkinson's disease and is frail, needing a wheelchair when leaving their home. "He's not doing this for himself, but for the sake of the other vets we are carrying on. We don't care about it all now, but if we don't make a stand, the other vets will give up. It's an anomaly that needs to be sorted out." SOURCE: Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3059617a11,00.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn