RICHMOND, Va. — "I went in for a simple cough, and they came back with, 'Your labs are out of whack.'"
That's how Lawrence Mallory got the bad news last April at a Petersburg hospital: his diabetes had progressed to the point of kidney failure.
But it got even worse for the 41-year-old almost immediately.
"The following week, they're suddenly checking for blockages," Mallory said. "They're saying, 'Okay, you gotta have open heart surgery. You have to have a quadruple bypass because they found five blockages in your heart.'"
Mallory's world had suddenly changed dramatically and, apart from the very serious medical interventions, the longtime call center supervisor would have to learn to ask for help.
"That really put a stop to my whole life, because I was so used to doing what I wanted to do, working, being able to do and maintain, to do everything I wanted to do myself and not be depending on people," Mallory said.
An even more important source of help would be getting disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA), which he applied for once he was released from the hospital.
He said it did not go well.
"I got to the interview part and they said, 'Hey, well, we can't continue because the caseworker didn't close out your case," Mallory said. "That was June; when they rescheduled, my interview was October. Now mind you, through April, May, June, July, August, September, I had no income coming in because I had just started a new job, and I hadn't been on there long enough to get short-term disability."
That hold-up at the Petersburg office meant going four extra months without income. But even once he had his interview and was told his application was in order, he heard nothing for weeks.
"I had been a trainer, supervisor, and instructor for a call center," Mallory explained. "I've been a mentor. And my main thing was a supervisor for Medicaid and Medicare, when people would call in to ask about those programs. I finally understood what my customers went through, after trying to get my Social Security filing straight, because the application process online is very long."
That's when Mallory realized how precarious his financial position was.
"A lot of people in my position might get put out of their homes, because they're waiting, and who has 200 days to wait for an answer?" Mallory asked. "Thank God, my landlord has been nice. He's been working with me. But it's a business out here. I keep telling this man, 'Oh, I'm going to get you your money. It's coming.' But anybody would get tired of hearing that I can't give them an answer."
So, in addition to checking his Social Security account online, he started asking at the Petersburg office itself.
Again, disappointment: his face-to-face interactions didn't go well.
"When [one clerk] looked and saw it was me, she said, 'What are you doing back down here? I thought I told you we had everything we need,'" Mallory said. "To me, that's, that's an insult. That's the wrong words to say to somebody because you don't know what a person is going through. It sent me into a depression, like I said. I didn't want to be around people. I didn't want to be bothered."
That's when Mallory reached out to CBS 6.
I contacted a spokesperson at the SSA office in Richmond to see if someone could talk to Mallory about the status of his application.
She responded that someone would follow up with him.
"It put fire under them, because before then, I got no calls, nothing. After contacting you all, four people called me that day to follow up on my case, to let me know my status," Mallory said. "But that's the only thing I was asking at the beginning, just some type of answer."
Mallory said he has not had to leave his home thanks to a very understanding landlord. But he says he worries about others going through the same struggle he has, and knows in some respects, he's been lucky.
"I thank God for my family, like my mother and my father, because if it wasn't for them, I don't know where I would be in this situation," Mallory said. "But I feel bad sometimes, because my mother is 75, and my dad is 70. They're still getting up and going to work when they shouldn't be. I should be taking care of them or doing something, but the roles have been reversed, and they're taking out of their pocket. I know they're on a fixed income. They're taking out their pocket to help me when I should be helping them with situations."
When I followed up with the SSA spokesperson about whether the Petersburg office had received a significant number of complaints, Jacqueline Weisgarber sent a statement that provided a broad, national overview of Social Security:
"Our goal is to take good care of people the very best way we can, given unprecedented challenges. As you know, SSA is serving more customers than ever before with the lowest staffing levels in 50 years."
She also sent a link to testimony by SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley before a Senate committee addressing that challenge.
Because of the financial difficulties Mallory faces, even once his Social Security disability benefits are accounted for, he has started a GoFundMe to pay off his many bills.
If you would like to help out, please click here.
Have you experienced issues collecting Social Security benefits? Email the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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