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Does Senatorial And Congressional Involvement Help?

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SolInvictus

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Does it help in a DRO appeal to involve your local senator or congressman to get your case closed? And does anyone know the average time that takes to get results. Thanks for any input in advance.

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Carlie, thanks for your great and informed insight. Let me see if I can clarify a bit more my situation to help you narrow your assumption of the outcome more. I think it's a DRO denovo because I was at 60% for vision and knees/ arthritis etc since 2006. In late 2010, I applied for PTSD, tbi, IU, and increase with vision as well as hearing. They promptly denied all within like 4months citing lack of new evidence for the PTSD and tbi which they had denied back in 2006, and basically said the C&P exams failed to prove that the other issues had worsened. I immediately requested the DRO denovo review and submitted new and relevant evidence of the PTSD and tbi plus evidence of my worsening remaining eye as established by SSDI physicians. About 3 months later they granted the eyesight issue after their own C&P corroborated the SSDI conclusion that the trauma to my brain that blew out my right eye had caused residuals that is worsening the condition of my remaining eye. They increased total rating at this juncture to 70%. They scheduled me for further C&P's for the PTSD and tbi. The PTSD results and the doctors claim to me was highly favorable with GAF of 46. The tbi basically was inconclusive because the examiner claimed the scores were too low to be true and I am malingering etc. now I don't know how relevant that exam is or what it is supposed to prove since it is effectively a forgone conclusion that the cause of the worsening condition of my remaining eye, according to the va and the SSDI physician, is the severe trauma that took my eyesight. In conclusion Carlie, I was at 70% sc before ever applying for PTSD or tbi. They concede PTSD with their exams, they have unwittingly conceded tbi with a previous grant. The entire process had been 2yrs and they are out of excuses, what do you think they are up to other than the tired long lines song? Can they really reverse their previous concession on the tbi and say a veteran with my level and severity of injuries doesn't have tbi+ PTSD total of 30% to grant IU? I know I made this too long but I do value your insight so give this your best shot. Thanks in advance.

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Also Carlie, I have sent them hardship documents and proof that I have been unemployed due to blindness since I completed the vocrehab program almost 1.5 years ago. I have already been through bankruptcy and in the foreclosure process now. They have had this evidence of hardship for well over 2 months now and I just want them to decide one way or another before I end up on the streets with my family. I cannot understand why it's so difficult for them to conclude that a bomb blast big enough to leave a marine blind for life is "more likely than not", to borrow their soulless beuraucratic lingo, powerful enough to have caused trauma to his brain in the process. What more proof do these cold calculators need? Or is the only way they award PTSD and tbi is if the vet is too brain dead to know their false positive exams are not designed with his interests at heart?

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You need to be homeless or with a terminal illness to get hardship, I am sorry to write....

It's alright Deanbrt. What is sad is the truth of what you just said. Question is how is it being helpful to say you will save the vet after he has drowned? Who will be there to testify to the fact that the vet was saved, besides the va claiming they did so out of self interest when they need more congressional funding. It's like first requiring the vet to prove he is brain dead before granting tbi, who's to say the va will pay him all he's due once they know he can't count higher than pennies on the dollar? How convenient that the people doing the paying get to set the terms and condition of payment as well. How unfortunate for the poor vet who rendered the service before negotiating the price.

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I'm glad we have a place to be honest amongst ourselves as well as vent our frustrations when need be such as hadit. I do understand the point my fellow vets make about the reality of the system. I guess I spend most of my comments on here advocating more for what ought to be than what already is. I have no emperical evidence to support most of what I say other than my God giving common sense, and in my opinion, and I believe I'm in the company of such giants among men as Thomas Paine when I say this, that should be sufficient. For example, how is it that SSDI most often beats the va claims system or equals it when it comes to speed of completed cases while dealing with exponentially more participants than the va. Now I know if we get lost in the details we can explain away the reasons behind the disparity. But that is my point. Just because they can confuse us into agreeing with their presentation of events when they are allowed to endlessly explain doesn't make them any more right than when their argument fails the simpler common sense test. Because the common sense test is what exposes the failures in the system.

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