For those veterans with and without disabilities who have served in the United States Armed Forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers extensive benefits to care for veterans, spouses, survivors and dependents. These benefits can be found at Disaboom, the largest online community for people with disabilities, under the military life section. The number of individuals eligible for benefits is increasing. According to the VA, about a quarter of the nation’s population, approximately 74.5 million people, are potentially eligible for veterans benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans. Of the more than 250,000 Americans with serious spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI), about 42,000 are veterans eligible for medical care and other benefits from the VA. In 2006, the VA provided a full range of care to nearly 26,000 veterans with spinal cord injuries and SCI specialty care to about 13,000 of these veterans.
In 1977, while serving on active duty with the U.S. Army, Sebastian DeFrancesco, 54, of Santa Cruz, CA, sustained a C5, 6 spinal cord injury in a jeep accident near Verona, Italy. In critical condition, DeFrancesco was flown first to a military hospital in Germany for immediate medical care, then to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC, before finally completing an intensive spinal cord injury rehabilitation program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
“While an injury like mine is more than life changing, I was fortunate to have been serving in the military when it happened,” explained Sebastian DeFrancesco. “My service connection has allowed me to pursue a career in sports and make important decisions about my path in life,” he added.
A service-connected disability, according to the VA, is an injury incurred or aggravated during active military service. Benefits such as compensation, vocational rehabilitation and employment, Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grants, medical care and prioritization, adaptive automobile assistance grants, aides and attendants as well as sensory and prosthetic equipment assistance is available at different levels to veterans who have been assigned a service-connected disability rating. Some are also available to those who are classified as non service-connected.
“Having a service-connected disability is very similar to drawing disability insurance if you were injured while working on a job,” said DeFrancesco. “The benefits package is complete, and the VA tailors it to each veteran,” he added.
In the last three decades, DeFrancesco has done more in a wheelchair than most people only dream of accomplishing in a lifetime. He represented the United States in five different Paralympics Games (as well as numerous national and world championships) in track and field and table tennis and was a 1998 inductee into the Wheelchair Sports Hall of Fame. Over the years, he has volunteered his time helping other disabled children and adults at facilities such as the Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton, Massachusetts, and has served on the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) National Sports Board. DeFrancesco is now the treasurer of the Bay Area & Western Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
He contributes much of his success to his affiliation with the VA. “Because of my access to certain VA grant programs, I was one of the first athletes to receive a rigid frame sports chair as well as a handcycle. The VA makes an investment in each veteran and understands the need for personalized and sports-specific equipment and makes the correct investment in the athlete. The equipment is definitely expensive, but if a veteran uses it for the right reasons like improving overall health or competition, the VA will continue to offer the benefit,” DeFrancesco said.
Sebastian DeFrancesco has also utilized several other VA grants for himself and his family. These include the Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) grant, HISA grant and adaptive automobile assistance grants as well as educational assistance for his eldest daughter Alicia, 21, who is a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Overall, I have never had any major problems getting care and service from the VA and, even now, I have the option to go back to school if I wanted,” he stated. DeFrancesco first used his educational grant to go to school at the University of Massachusetts. While athletic commitments and a series of medical issues changed his course, he is considering going back to school to finish his bachelor’s degree and earn a teaching certificate.
Sebastian DeFrancesco concluded, “The VA, along with agencies like the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), is constantly working to ensure that American veterans receive top notch benefits. The VA works hard to stay ahead of the needs of the veteran and make life for those with and without a disability as rewarding and complete as it can be.”
To find a list of available benefits for veterans and their families, as well as information on eligibility and how to get started log on to http://www.disaboom.com/info/education/ , select the “Living” section, and look under “Military Life” or visit your regional VA office.
