New York State bureaucracy at it's worst.....

Veteran Dies After Fight for Lottery Winnings

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (April 26) - Wayne Schenk , who fought unsuccessfully to get a $1 million New York State Lottery prize paid in a lump sum so he could use it to treat his cancer, died here on Monday. He was 51.

His death was confirmed by the Baird-Moore Funeral Home. On Jan. 12, Schenk won $1 million playing a $5 scratch-off ticket in the lottery's High Stakes Blackjack game.

Five weeks earlier, he learned that he probably had less than a year to live because of inoperable lung cancer. Mr. Schenk had tried to get lottery officials to give him a lump sum, instead of $50,000 annual installments over 20 years, so he could enter a hospital that specialized in treating advanced cancer.

Lottery officials said they could not alter the rules. He received one installment before he died. Mr. Schenk served in the Army from 1976 to 1980. Last year, he bought a tavern after decades of working at odd jobs in construction, in the Highway Department and at a ski resort. On April 4, Mr. Schenk married his partner, Joan DeClerck, to whom he made plans to leave his winnings, a friend, Nick Pascazi, said.

Ya see....this shit is so typical of the New York State bureaucracy. Seems to this here Cookie that they coulda made an exception just this one time to possibly help save the mans life......