Last Ditch Bid
Widow’s fight for asbestos compo
On his death bed, Phillip Taylor-Meihana cursed his Vietnam War army service for causing his terminal asbestos-related cancer. ‘‘He said to me, ‘This is f...ing bloody Vietnam’,’’ widow Colleen Meihana said.
She will plead her husband’s case in front of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Military Veterans Inquiry in Canterbury on Tuesday in her last-ditch bid to get compensation for his death.
Veterans’ Affairs refused his deathbed bid for lump sum compensation, disputing his claims that he was exposed to the killer fibres in Vietnam when his platoon destroyed asbestoslined ammunition bunkers.
‘‘This is for justice for my husband,’’ Meihana said. ‘‘He felt he was cheated with this bloody cancer. He was a fighter and I’m fighting for him, but everything has come to a big brick wall.’’
In February last year, the 67-year-old Napier man was diagnosed with an aggressive form of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by inhaling asbestos that was attacking his abdominal lining and organs, and died only 61⁄2 weeks later.
He had given up work six months earlier because of health problems, but doctors wrongly diagnosed reflux.
The family and his doctors were initially mystified because none of his past jobs were linked to asbestos exposure, such as construction, building or working in an asbestos factory.
Taylor-Meihana drove earthmoving trucks in his youth before joining the army in 1969. He was posted to Vietnam two weeks after marrying Colleen.
After leaving the army in 1977, he was a Corrections officer in prisons for 27 years before moving to Australia in 2004 to work in coal mines.
His Auckland specialist suggested it was ‘‘possible’’ his years working in Australian mines from 2004 exposed him to asbestos, despite his family disputing that finding because he drove air-conditioned trucks there and had no contact with asbestos.
Also, diseases linked to asbestos typically surfaced 30 to 40 years after someone’s exposure to it, which fitted with his Vietnam service.
Finally, his army platoon sergeant, John Mangakahia, seemed to solve the mystery.
The 79-year-old reminded his dying mate that their platoon, as part of the 4th RAR/NZ Anzac Battalion, had been ordered to destroy ammunition bunkers around Australia’s military base in Nui Dat in Vietnam when they withdrew from the area in 1971.
Other Vietnam veterans and friends of Taylor-Meihana investigated and confirmed that ammunition bunkers were commonly lined with asbestos for fireproofing.
‘‘The ammunition bunkers were a typical army-type construction, which I am now aware were asbestos-lined along with the concrete side walls,’’ Mangakahia wrote in his submission to Veterans’ Affairs to support TaylorMeihana’s compensation claim, which will be presented to the tribunal in Kaiapoi on Tuesday.
They drilled into the bunkers and blew them up, before army vehicles crushed down the debris.
‘‘I know that there was a lot of dust and dirt and rubbish flying in the air,’’ Mangakahia recalled.
He documented details of their actions at Nui Dat in a diary so can prove their work on the ammunition bunkers, but no-one knew about asbestos at the time, he said.
Meihana said her husband rarely spoke of Vietnam until his dying days, and remembered destroying the bunkers once reminded.
‘‘He told me he wore the same dusty overalls for several weeks while destroying those bunkers. He could have easily inhaled asbestos.’’
But Veterans’ Affairs rejected his claim for a terminal lump sum payment, saying there was no proof the bunkers contained asbestos.
‘‘Veterans’ Affairs has obtained information from Department of Veterans’ Affairs Australia (DVA) that confirms it is very unlikely that ammunition bunkers contained asbestos, but could not rule it out entirely,’’ it wrote in its refusal letter.
‘‘Unless Mr Mangakahia can provide evidence to support his contention about the asbestos claim, Veterans’ Affairs can not place any reliance on this point in his declaration.’’
Under the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, veterans and their families can claim pensions or compensation for various asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma.
In contrast, ACC accepted TaylorMeihana’s claim after his death that his terminal illness was from serving in Vietnam.
However, it declined to pay his family lump sum compensation because it received his claim nine days before death, which was insufficient time to process it.
Lump sums were granted only if a person’s claim was accepted before death, but it paid accidental death entitlements and some funeral expenses, an ACC spokeswoman said.
In 2015, ACC granted 93 lump sum payments for asbestos-related diseases, which averaged $96,000 each.
Meihana feels most aggrieved at Veterans’ Affairs for failing to support her husband’s claim years after he ‘‘put his body on the line’’ for New Zealand.
‘‘They were sent to Vietnam and noone thought about the consequences. [Veterans’ Affairs] is just turning a blind eye to everything.
‘‘I think it’s very, very unfair the way they’ve treated me.’’