{"id":23611,"date":"2022-07-06T18:34:32","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T22:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=23611"},"modified":"2022-07-06T18:34:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T22:34:38","slug":"polk-county-paramedic-wins-fight-for-cancer-disability-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/07\/06\/polk-county-paramedic-wins-fight-for-cancer-disability-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County paramedic wins fight for cancer disability benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A medical evaluation by physicians in pulmonary and oncology medicine convinced the Florida Retirement System to approve \u201cline-of-duty\u201d disability retirement benefits for Polk County Fire Rescue paramedic Christina Lambert Pierson just 3 months after sharing her fight for cancer benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The written decision issued May 24, has given Pierson new hope in her fight for full benefits from the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierson who devoted 6 years as a firefighter\/paramedic for Polk County was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer on Oct. 3, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state law which covers 21 cancers including lung cancer was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis 9 months after her diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m on maintenance chemo,\u201d said Pierson, \u2018Basically because my Oncologist is going to find out what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Pierson learned the state law was going into effect she was sure she would be eligible for medical coverage and a one-time benefit of $25,000, but the county argued because the diagnosis came after the law went on the books, Pierson would not be eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierson said, \u201cbig-name law firms\u201d refused to take her case but Maitland attorney Geoff Bichler never hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bichler, a long-time voice for first responders across the country, was surprised at the quick decision by the Florida Retirement System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to have an enormous impact on firefighters that become disabled with one of these cancers,\u201d said Bichler. \u201cThis is a huge victory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory is a first step in the legal wrangling for benefits that seem to hinge on the date of Pierson\u2019s diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is what\u2019s so unique about Christina\u2019s case,\u201d Bichler said, \u201cYou had a diagnosis before the law went into effect and then you have the confirmed disability after the law went into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent Tampa case, Judge Thomas Ramsberger ruled that cancer benefits under the law \u201care not restricted\u201d if they occurred prior to the effective date of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far Polk County has refused to change the position but Bichler and Pierson have committed to stay the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not asking for something I don\u2019t deserve,\u201d Pierson said. \u201cI want them to say it (Line of duty disability), I\u2019m not going to stop until they admit it, that\u2019s what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A medical evaluation by physicians in pulmonary and oncology medicine convinced the Florida Retirement System to approve \u201cline-of-duty\u201d disability retirement benefits for Polk County Fire Rescue paramedic Christina Lambert Pierson… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[3102],"class_list":["post-23611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-paramedic-wins-fight-for-cancer-disability-benefits"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}