Big checks require city's double-check.Byline: Clive McFarlane COLUMN: CLIVE MCFARLANE On March 28, the Worcester Fire Department conducted a ceremony honoring Lt. Donald M. Quinlan, who the department said had died in the line of duty In the Line of Duty may refer to:
But Lt. Quinlan's death certificate, signed by state medical examiner A public official charged with investigating all sudden, suspicious, unexplained, or unnatural deaths within the area of his or her appointed jurisdiction. A medical examiner differs from a Coroner in that a medical examiner is a physician. Dr. Mindy J. Hull, states he died from natural causes, stemming from a "progressive neurological disorder Noun 1. neurological disorder - a disorder of the nervous system nervous disorder, neurological disease disorder, upset - a physical condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning; "the doctor prescribed some medicine for the disorder"; due to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, see AIDS. ." The official determination of death due to natural causes, however, hasn't prevented his family from filing an accidental death pension claim. Lt. Quinlan's widow could not be reached for comment. Her phone number is unlisted and she did not respond to a detailed written message left Monday at her home. The city's Retirement Board, meanwhile, is scheduled to take up the issue at its Aug. 28 meeting. If the claim is approved, the lieutenant's family would be eligible to receive 72 percent of his salary, tax free, and his full annuity. Without that approval, the family would receive about 66 percent of his salary, which would be taxable. Firefighters often have been awarded accidental death benefits A provision of a life insurance policy stating that if the insured—the person whose life has been insured—dies in an accident, the beneficiary of the policy—the person to whom its proceeds are payable—will receive twice the face value of the policy. due to illnesses that can be linked to their jobs - cancer, for example. But Lt. Quinlan's case, City Auditor James A. DelSignore acknowledges, is "a tough one" to understand. "We act on causation causation Relation that holds between two temporally simultaneous or successive events when the first event (the cause) brings about the other (the effect). According to David Hume, when we say of two types of object or event that “X causes Y” (e.g. ," the city auditor said. "Did the job-related injury cause the death? "It seems it would be tough to say an orthopedic injury is the cause of death here, but we won't know until we see what they have." Asked about the situation, Fire Chief Gerard A. Dio said he didn't know enough to discuss the case in detail. He did note, though, that neither he nor the Fire Department was made aware of Lt. Quinlan's illness, as indicated by the medical examiner. Firefighter Frank Raffa, president of Local 1009, International Association of Fire Fighters The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is a labor union representing professional fire fighters in the United States and Canada. The IAFF was formed in 1918 and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO in the United States and the Canadian Labour Congress in Canada. , said he was "extremely surprised" by the medical examiner's conclusion, but declined to say more. The Retirement Board, too, is staying mum about the accidental death pension claim. Elizabeth A. Early, the board's executive director, did not return several calls. The Quinlan case means that the board is now saddled with the responsibility for decisions in at least two pending, questionable claims. City councilors successfully lobbied the state earlier this year for permission to provide a special pension to a 36-year-old firefighter, Mark S. Stomski, whose leg injury, suffered fighting a fire in 2006, led doctors to conclude that the injury will "likely result in his death." The firefighter was diagnosed by his doctors as having a blood clot blood clot n. A semisolid, gelatinous mass of coagulated blood that consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a fibrin network. in his lung. He was referred to a specialist in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , who concluded nothing could be done to treat his condition. The special pension would raise the firefighter's salary to $70,000, provide an additional $527.28 annually for each of his children under 18, and increase his salary and benefits every year, in line with contract wage increases that firefighters receive. No report was filed about the firefighter's injury. He was never examined by doctors representing the city and his special pension does not require the usual checks and balances, such as follow-up medical examinations to determine continued eligibility for the pension. The retirement board did agree to take at least a cursory cur·so·ry adj. Performed with haste and scant attention to detail: a cursory glance at the headlines. [Late Latin curs glance at the firefighter's medical records before approving the pension. Those records, however, were never presented when the board took up the case at its last meeting. Mr. DelSignore said the special pension would not be granted until those records are presented. In Lt. Quinlan's case, the city also insists that its own physician review his medical records. "We are not in the business of judging whether someone is a good guy or not," Mr. DelSignore said. "We judge these things based on the merits on the merits adj. referring to a judgment, decision or ruling of a court based upon the facts presented in evidence and the law applied to that evidence. A judge decides a case "on the merits" when he/she bases the decision on the fundamental issues and considers of the cases. Are they (beneficiaries) entitled to it or not? "That is what we have to judge." Contact Clive McFarlane via e-mail at cmcfarlane@telegram.com. |
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