VA mistakenly tells vets they had Lou Gehrig's Disease

A computer glitch mistakenly led more than 1,200 veterans to believe they had a fatal illness. According to the National Gulf War Resource Center, the Veterans Affairs Department erroneously sent out letters to veterans telling them they had “a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,” otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease or ALS.

As a result, the Gulf War veterans group was barraged by phone calls from veterans concerned that they had a terminal illness. “Many of these veterans went to private clinicians to get a second opinion. This second opinion outside of the VA is very expensive and can range from $1,000 to $3,000 or more,” the center said in a written statement on its Web site.

For that reason, the VA “has an obligation to go on television and make public service announcements to prevent veterans from becoming overly alarmed. In addition, each veteran that was notified should be rescreened by the (VA) for neurological issues that are undiagnosed.”

The VA should also reimburse those veterans who incurred costly medical bills for seeking a physician's assistance to determine if they had the disease, the group stated.

Lou Gehrig's disease is a degenerative illness that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.

In a statement, a VA spokeswoman said the department has been reviewing the individual files for all the recipients of the letter to identify those who received the notification in error. VA employees are also personally contacting these individuals “to ensure they understand the letter should not be confused with a medical diagnosis of ALS, explain why they mistakenly received the letter and express VA’s sincere apologies for the distress caused by this unfortunate and regrettable error,” the spokeswoman said.

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