THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702230235
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: 86 lines
Joanne Bertalan won the battle her paralyzed son could not fight - a five-month struggle with Navy and Marine officials who had sought to strip her 22-year-old son of his veterans benefits after a car accident in Norfolk.
Bertalan was at her son's bedside at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on Friday, bags under her blue eyes, her gray hair tousled by the five-hour flight from San Diego after a four-hour hearing. Months of uncertainty about the quality and cost of the care her son will receive had ended.
It is doubtful that her son, Cpl. Joseph Bertalan, understood much of what she said. He is only minimally conscious after emerging from a coma eight months ago.
``It's been an uphill battle all the way, and I was never sure how this would conclude,'' the Marine's mother said. ``But in the end, the system worked; it did what it was supposed to do. It's been incredibly hard, but things worth fighting for always are.''
In a ruling last Thursday, a hearing panel of the Navy Physical Evaluation Board, meeting at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, recommended a rare reversal of earlier findings that attributed the Marine's injuries to his own misconduct. His health costs have averaged more than $50,000 a month. He had faced the prospect of being stripped of all his veterans benefits, including his medical care.
That would have severely hurt any chances for even the most minimal improvement in his condition, said Dr. James Kelly, director of the Rehabilitation Institute's brain injury program. Bertalan now can communicate, although inconsistently, only by blinking his eyes. Quality medical care is ``crucial for his survival,'' Kelly added, noting that his patient had contracted meningitis once and pneumonia seven times.
``And that's with him being in our good hands,'' Kelly said.
On Jan. 16, 1996, four days after his 21st birthday, Joseph Bertalan and 15 other Marines were traveling in four cars to sick call at Norfolk Naval Base for inoculations.
While trying to pass another Marine's car, Bertalan lost control of his, which skidded and smashed against a tree. All four Marines in his car were injured. All except Bertalan returned to active duty. The crash damaged his brain stem and frontal lobe, and fractured his cheekbone.
An investigation into the accident by Marine Corps Capt. William F. McCollough, of Bertalan's unit, found that his injuries were the result of intentional misconduct.
The accident occurred on a two-lane asphalt road where the posted speed limit was 25 mph. McCollough concluded that Bertalan had been going much faster than that. Specifically, the investigation showed that he should have ``reasonably foreseen'' that an accident would result from exceeding the speed limit and, therefore, his injuries did not occur in the line of duty.
Those findings were forwarded to the Navy Physical Evaluation Board in Arlington for review. Navy Capt. D.S. Koch, presiding officer of the board, notified Joanne Bertalan on Sept. 24 that the record-review panel of that board would recommend that her son receive no Veterans Administration benefits, including medical care, because the injuries were caused by his willful neglect of the speed limit.
Bertalan, a 48-year-old widow from Lansing, Ill., borrowed money from family members, took a second mortgage on her home and hired the law firm of Tomes & Dvorak, of Chicago and Kansas City, Mo. She has spent $50,000 to help build her son's case.
Quick to praise the military's handling of her son's treatment, Bertalan is also openly critical of the investigation that jeopardized his long-term care.
``I had never heard of anything like this in my life,'' she said. ``I mean, my God, this was an accident. If the armed forces are going to uninsure people at will, they need to advise people about it. Tell them, `If you make one false move, do something wrong, your medical bills will not be covered.' ''
Investigators hired by Bertalan's attorneys disputed the quality of the initial accident investigation by private security guards at the base.
Jonathan Tomes, the senior partner in Tomes & Dvorak, said that the hearing panel deliberated for about an hour before recommending that Joseph Bertalan be transferred from active duty to the Permanent Disability Retired List. If approved by the president of the Navy Physical Evaluation Board - several officials said such approval is routine - the move will provide full medical and pension benefits.
``It was a very conscientious decision by the board, the right thing to do,'' Tomes said.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC INJURIES U.S MARINE CORPS
U.S. NORFOLK NAVAL BASE RULING LAWSUIT