Levi Samora got a stack of rejection letters — one on the day he received aid

By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 23, 2008 at midnight

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Javier Manzano © The Rocky

E. Levi Samora Jr., shown on his Weld County land, was a 24-year Rocky Flats worker granted compensation after a five year fight.

Deadly Denial: 3-day special report

Visit the special report index of our Deadly Denial investigative series about the failure of the U.S. Department of Labor to adequately compensate former nuclear weapons workers suffering from illnesses. Read more stories, watch videos, download documents and weigh in on the discussion.

For five years, former Rocky Flats worker E. Levi Samora Jr. was denied compensation meant for sick nuclear weapons workers, even though he had a diagnosis of a bomb-related illness from Rocky Flats doctors.

Early in the compensation program, chronic beryllium disease was considered a rare, almost certain approval. Unlike invisible radiation, beryllium leaves its mark. Samora, 48, had the medical test that tied his lung damage directly to the unusual metal, which was used to make nuclear weapons in the sprawling plant northwest of Denver.

Still, the U.S. Department of Labor rejected his plea for help, as the disease began to scar his lungs and make it hard for him to breathe.

The 24-year veteran of Rocky Flats continued to work at the plant during demolition, tearing down one contaminated building after another. He says he repeatedly was exposed to beryllium again, even though he was supposed to be kept away from it.

The labor department said it rejected the 2001 diagnosis of chronic beryllium disease in Samora because a physician had not signed it.

The department rejected his 2003 diagnosis, which was signed by a Rocky Flats doctor, because it "was not consistent" with Samora's other medical examinations. DOL also said that the doctor did not explain how he arrived at this diagnosis.

DOL did admit that Samora was sensitive to beryllium, a clear indication that the metal used at Rocky Flats was in his lungs and eventually could destroy his health. But DOL kept refusing to admit that his case had progressed to lung damage, which would trigger compensation, despite repeated X-rays and lung function tests that proved it had, Samora said.

"State disability said, beyond a shadow of doubt, I have the disease," he said. That wasn't good enough for DOL. "I have lesions on my face that have healed, shortness of breath, fatigue, joint pain — all are symptoms of the disease."

The DOL rejection letters stacked up. They were signed by 15 different case examiners, Samora said. Some examiners said he qualified and that he would be compensated. Then those employees would vanish and new DOL staff members would reverse the verbal assurances.

Examiners would ask for more documents. Samora provided them. Staff would ask for the same thing again.

In March, he was rejected again.

Frustrated, Samora called the Rocky Mountain News. Two days after the Rocky asked the DOL why a diagnosis of beryllium disease from a Rocky Flats doctor was not good enough for approval, Samora's case was reopened.

It was approved the same day.

According to the DOL letter of approval dated March 28, "a Director's Order" reopened the claim — on March 28. This time, the district medical officer managed to find — in the same file — a pulmonary-function test that showed decreased lung function from Samora's original excellent health. The unnamed doctor also found repeated records of coughing dating back to 2001.

Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Workers Compensation Programs at DOL, said in an interview earlier this year that Samora had been denied for five years because his medical records did not contain the exact information that the compensation law uses to define chronic beryllium disease.

"The criteria are very specific," Hallmark said. New tests early this year showed lung problems that met the definition, he said.

Samora insists that he did meet those criteria all along.

"There's no new information in there," he said. "It was all laid out for years."

DOL's letter approving Samora raised more questions, but DOL spokesman Loren Smith did not answer them over two months. Among them:

If the program is claimant-friendly, as touted by officials, why didn't DOL call the doctors that diagnosed chronic beryllium disease and get signatures, reasons for the diagnoses or the correct wording?

What changed in Samora's file March 28?

Why didn't DOL automatically file Samora's application in both halves of the program, as it is supposed to do?

Several weeks after the March 28 approval, Samora finally received the $150,000 that Congress said he deserved for losing his health because he willingly built nuclear bombs to defend his country, then stayed to clean up the environmental disaster left behind.

The day he received the money, he got another letter. It was from the same office. It denied his claim, again.

"It just goes to show how incompetent they are," he said. "It's been five years of hell."

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