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What's Your Opinion Of This Imo

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blackbird

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Please read this IMO and let me know what you think,

Thanks, Blackbird

To Whom it May Concern:

Mr.XXXXXXXXX is now 51 yrs old. I have been seeing him since 1996. At that time, he came to me with a foraminal disc at L4-L5, had a foraminal diskectomy done, and had continued degeneration of the 4-5 disc and subsequently underwent a 4-5 fusion. Relevant to this, I have reviewed XXXXX's SMR'S. He notes that when on deployment in Egypt from Oct to Nov 95 he was pulling on a heavy parts box from a stack of boxes and had a sharp pain in his back radiating down his left leg into his left foot. This is the exact distribution of discomfort for which I operated on him subsequently in 1996. It is more than likely the pathology for which I operated on he incurred in the lifting incident when he was deployed in Egypt. Theresore, it is more than likely related to his military service. He has intractable leg pain as a result of injury to the dorsal root ganglia and it was the ultimate cause of him requiring a fusion at L4-L5. He has had subsequent disc herniations most recently at L2-L3 but he has also had disc disease in the cervical spine rrequiring 5 additional fusions.

There is no question in my mind that there is a direct causal relationship between the injury sustained in Egypt and the necessity he had for an L4-L5 diskectomy and subsequent L4-L5 fusion.

Please address any questions to me, Dr. XXXXXXXXX

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WOW- a beauty-

was the injury noted at all in your SMRs?

Even if not -the doc gave a very good rationale for his nexus statement.

Unless you were in any severe auto accident or any other type of injury or accident since service or had a job as civilian that involved heavy lifting-I believe VA would have to give great weight to this rationale.

The doc is saying the disability is consistent with what you reported happened in service.I assume this would also be consistent with your MOS.

Lets hope the VA sees it that way too- did you have any buddy statements or anything at all- like maybe change of job for a while to help prove this happened in service?

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Relevant to this, I have reviewed XXXXX's SMR'S. He notes that when on deployment in Egypt from Oct to Nov 95 he was pulling on a heavy parts box from a stack of boxes and had a sharp pain in his back radiating down his left leg into his left foot. This is the exact distribution of discomfort for which I operated on him subsequently in 1996. It is more than likely the pathology for which I operated on he incurred in the lifting incident when he was deployed in Egypt.

By the wording his opinion is based on personal history/recount of the incident. Hopefully the SMRs have medical evidence, otherwise the statement is not credible. They will say that his opinion was base on your account of the incident.

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WOW- a beauty-

was the injury noted at all in your SMRs?

Even if not -the doc gave a very good rationale for his nexus statement.

Unless you were in any severe auto accident or any other type of injury or accident since service or had a job as civilian that involved heavy lifting-I believe VA would have to give great weight to this rationale.

The doc is saying the disability is consistent with what you reported happened in service.I assume this would also be consistent with your MOS.

Lets hope the VA sees it that way too- did you have any buddy statements or anything at all- like maybe change of job for a while to help prove this happened in service?

Hey Berta,

No it wasn't in my SMR'S because I didn't report it when it happened. I thought it was just a pulled muscle, and I thought I would be ok.

No one witnessed the injury. The other troops were trying to handle a major problem in the communications van so I was trying to move the boxes alone, (dedicated or stupid)?

Yes, come to think of I was given light duty on drill weekend that followed because those in charge need my back was messed up, they just didn't know how.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I'm with Sharon on this. Without some kind of record of the injury, or a buddy statement, then this is not going to carry any weight. A rater will deny this one right away. You are going to have to come up with some scrap of evidence to prove that you got hurt while on active duty.

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