Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Vanessa Walsh is dealing with an unbending state bureaucracy.

The widow of a Federal Way police officer, Vanessa has been told that she doesn't deserve survivor benefits.

Her husband Brian died in the line of duty while guarding a police perimeter.

There was a suspect in a police-involved shooting on the loose; officers had been assaulted and this was happening just several weeks after the murder of four Lakewood officers and a Seattle officer.

It was, and remains, a stressful time for the men and women who wear a badge and pledge to protect us.

Brian Walsh died of a heart attack while guarding a police perimeter.

He died in his patrol car as the search for a suspect was under way.

But because Brian Walsh’s heart was not stopped by a bullet, the State Department of Labor and Industry has told his wife, and their three children, that they're on their own.

Cold-hearted, unbending state bureaucrats citing rules and looking at tally sheets have kicked a cop's family to the curb.

We should all contact the governor, the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader and insist that they use their political influence to save Brian Walsh’s family from the indignity and insult inflicted on them by heartless L&I bean counters hiding behind their own petty version of bureaucracy.

Gov. Chris Gregoire: Governor's Office: 360-902-4111

Frank Chopp: Speaker of the House: chopp.frank@leg.wa.gov

Sen. Lisa Brown: Senate Majority Leader: brown.lisa@leg.wa.gov

Story Here (http://www.komonews.com/opinion/kenschram/97594669.html)

That sucks. Here a heart attack is considered an occupational disease and it treated as such whether the officer in on duty or not. And the widow gets survivor benefits. Same with pneumonia, TB and hepatitis, they assume you contracted them at work.

The law in Washington doesn't cover that?

I always assumed that it did. As far as I was aware, if you died on duty (Whether in a shooting, car accident, heart attack etc), it was a "line of duty" death. Guess we know where we stand now.

I always assumed that it did. As far as I was aware, if you died on duty (Whether in a shooting, car accident, heart attack etc), it was a "line of duty" death. Guess we know where we stand now.

Here, it has to be a direct result of working (car accident, shooting, falling out of a tree) or a disease that's considered occupational. Dying from a brain aneurysm or stroke wouldn't count wouldn't count as they are not considered occupational even though you happened to have died on duty. This guy's widow would have definitely qualified since it was a heart attack.

Sounds like police unions need to start lobbying the legislature to get the law changed there.

You know, for what it's worth from a civilian's perspective, I don't know how even a bureaucrat can justify that decision. If it were someone in the hi-tech world (where I hover most of the time) who not only had a very passive job sitting but let's say whose checkups revealed chronic evidence of very poor eating, exercise, and other habits leading to a heart attack, I will be honest and tell you our healthcare system can't keep absorbing that level of negligence (and it's at epidemic levels)..... however, for a police officer whose job by definition puts them at great coronary risk as well as other physical risks, and who must I assume have to keep passing yearly physicals and other tests to be allowed in the field, it seems unconscionable to deny those benefits. Some things fall into gray categories, but this scneario doesn't even come close IMHO.