As athletes from 25 nations collect in B.C. this week to compete within the seventh Invictus Video games, a Canadian veteran who suffered life-changing accidents within the earlier video games is suing the Division of Nationwide Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) for $2.4 million.
Scott Snow, a poster boy for Workforce Canada in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 2023, was injured throughout his first wheelchair rugby match when the chair he was utilizing toppled backwards, slamming him onto the court docket ground and injuring his head, neck and backbone.
CBC Information beforehand reported that solely after being injured did Snow be taught that whereas serving CAF members are absolutely insured towards accidents sustained in the course of the video games, veterans on the staff weren’t. Snow is demanding that the federal government compensate him for remedy, ache and struggling and lack of earnings.
“The primary time they left me behind,” Snow instructed CBC Information this week, “I assumed when the story got here out, for certain any person would come assist and nonetheless nobody’s but to assist. I really feel like I’ve been left behind twice.”
The swimsuit is being filed in Federal Courtroom on Tuesday, days after Katy Perry, Nelly Furtado and Chris Martin carried out on the opening ceremonies at Vancouver’s BC Place. Jelly Roll and the Barenaked Women are scheduled to carry out on the closing ceremonies.
Snow’s declare has not but been examined in court docket. CBC Information has contacted the Division of Nationwide Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada however has but to obtain a response.
Snow was a high-profile Invictus staff member whose journey to the video games in Dusseldorf was the topic of a video produced to promote the games.
In his wheelchair rugby match towards america on Sept. 10, 2023, Snow was in a chair that didn’t have a restraint strap.
He instructed CBC Information that as he reached as much as catch a ball, he fell backwards. Video of the incident reveals his head and again slamming into the court docket floor beneath the burden of his 250-pound body.
Snow completed the sport unaware of the injury the autumn had brought on. He stated he noticed the staff physician and German medical professionals on web site after the sport. He stated they instructed him he did not want an X-ray.
Whereas reaching as much as intercept a move throughout Workforce Canada’s wheelchair rugby match towards Workforce U.S.A. on the 2023 Invictus Video games, Snow falls again and hits his head on the court docket floor.
Upon returning to Canada and resuming physiotherapy for his service-related accidents, X-rays revealed a brand new cervical backbone harm — forcing him to endure an operation to fuse his higher vertebrae collectively.
Whereas Snow’s arms improved, the tingling in his legs did not cease and he later realized that he had cracked vertebrae in his decrease backbone as effectively, requiring one other operation.
Unable to afford the modifications required to refit his home so it was accessible, Snow needed to transfer right into a retirement residence for a interval whereas he underwent bodily remedy.
When CBC Information reported on his case, detailing how he was paying out of pocket for spinal and eye remedy, in addition to for assisted dwelling, the federal government announced that going ahead it could insure veterans taking part within the Invictus Video games.
“We’ll proceed to work with the Canadian Armed Forces, Soldier On, Invictus Video games and different stakeholders to make sure … this case will probably be rectified earlier than Invictus Video games 2025,” then veterans’ affairs minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor instructed the Home of Commons in September.
Throughout query interval Thursday, NDP MP Rachel Blaney addressed about veterans competing in Invictus Video games on the hook for his or her medical insurance coverage. Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor stated the scenario will probably be rectified in time for Invictus Video games 2025.
Soldier On, a semi-autonomous CAF program that helps in poor health and injured CAF members and veterans get well by sports activities and leisure and inventive actions, manages Canada’s Invictus staff.
Snow stated that since being injured, Soldier On, the CAF and Veterans Affairs Canada haven’t responded to a number of requests to offer him with monetary and medical help.
Snow stated that he doesn’t blame the Invictus Video games and absolutely helps its mission to assist in giving injured troopers and veterans a possibility to characterize their nation. He says Soldier On, the CAF and Nationwide Defence are responsible for his scenario.
“They’ve admitted that they had been flawed. The minister admitted that within the Home. They modified their coverage, so why will not they now assist me?” Snow stated.
Canadian army veteran Scott Snow says he paid hundreds in surgical procedure payments after an harm sustained whereas competing on the Invictus Video games final yr. Beneath present guidelines, solely serving members have medical protection.
Philip Millar, the lawyer representing Snow, instructed CBC Information that he despatched a press release of declare to Nationwide Defence and the CAF greater than three weeks in the past trying to attain a settlement out of court docket.
“I requested them earlier than this if they might simply comply with cowl a few of his rehab and requested the army to get again to me and so they simply stated no, which is brutal,” Millar stated.
“We tried and so they appeared non-responsive … they simply stated they had been busy with the Invictus Video games.”
‘This could possibly be a simple repair,’ says advocate
Medically retired captain Sean Bruyea, a former air pressure intelligence officer, is a number one advocate for the rights of injured veterans.
He says it is ridiculous that Snow has to take the federal government to court docket to get compensation that veterans taking part within the 2025 and future video games now qualify for.
“You possibly can’t maintain utilizing these video games to romanticize harm and play the hero card and keep away from coping with real-life veterans in caring for them,” he stated.
“What a stark and disturbing irony that that is an occasion, the Invictus Video games, that is meant to considerably romanticize and place heroic labels on veterans who’re capable of take part.”
Bruyea says that the CAF and Veterans Affairs Canada have packages to assist veterans with remedy and assisted-living preparations and they need to be prolonged to assist Snow.
“This could possibly be a simple repair,” he stated.
Unable to afford remedy
In keeping with the swimsuit being filed in Federal Courtroom, Snow is in search of $1 million in damages for ache, struggling and the lack of enjoyment of life.
Snow can be asking for a further $1 million for medical, hospital and different rehabilitation remedy.
The swimsuit says that whereas Snow is receiving incapacity advantages after being medically retired from the forces, he’s allowed to earn as much as $20,000 a yr to prime up his advantages with out penalty.
The swimsuit says that as a result of his incomes capability has been “severely restricted,” Snow needs Nationwide Defence and the CAF to pay him $440,000 to cowl his lack of earnings, an quantity equal to 22 years incomes the utmost top-up.
The assertion of declare says that Snow has two herniated disks and two fractures in his lumbar backbone. It additionally says that within the fall he suffered “extreme head trauma inflicting a tear within the optical muscle tissue.”
Snow was paying out of pocket for each eye remedy and again remedy however says he needed to discontinue remedy as a result of he can now not afford it.
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