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Medical insurance firm under fire after rejecting heros claim
Australian News.Net
Monday 24th October, 2011
Recognised by Missouri in a Senate resolution as a “a true hero and inspiration to others”, tornado survivor Mark Lindquist has had his insurance claim rejected, causing outrage.
Lindquist survived the devastating Joplin tornado that ripped through the town earlier in the year, killing 162 people and destroying 7,000 homes, making it one of the worst in US history.
Employed as a social worker, the 51-year-old Lindquist was visiting a group home occupied by Mark Farmer, Rick Fox and Tripp Miller, three middle-aged men with Down syndrome, at the time the May 22nd tornado struck.
Unable to move the men to safety and with no underground shelter in which to seek refuge, Lindquist and his co-worker Ryan Tackett placed mattresses over the men for protection then climbed atop the mattresses for added weight.
The group home took a direct hit from the EF-5 twister, the 200 mph winds tossing Lindquist nearly a block, breaking every rib in his body, obliterating his shoulder, knocking out most of his teeth and leaving him in a coma for about two months.
All three men were killed in the tornado. Doctors have said Lindquist’s survival, considering his injuries, defies logic.
He is left with a US $2.5 million medical bill, which has been rejected by worker’s compensation.
The Accident Fund Insurance Company of America, his company’s workers’ compensation provider, argued in its rejection that “there was no greater risk than the general public at the time you were involved in the Joplin tornado”.
That reasoning has angered Lindquist’s family, employer and even lawmakers.
“I think they need to take another look at the circumstances and revisit the claim,” Republican state Representative Bill Lant said. “What he did went beyond heroics.”
Lindquist’s family have argued that the company’s decision is unfathomable because if he hadn't been at work, he wouldn’t have been hurt.
Lindquist’s employer, Community Support Services, has asked Accident Fund Insurance to reconsider Lindquist's case, but the Accident Fund Insurance Company of America has not commented on whether they will.
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