8up4life

Any system that is administered as to wrongfully delay and deny will naturally accrue a backlog as time goes by. These people are highly focuesd on playing mind games and depriving vets of their rights and benefits. That has not changed, nothing has changed.

That came from the comment section of an article on VA's website. I only shared it here as confirmation of what most veterans suspect or feel about VA. It certainly helps to go at it knowing what you are up against. Some claim to have had good experiences with VA, and that's good for them. In my 25 years of dealing with the VA, I have nothing good to say about them. Personally, I would like to see VA completely dismantled. I want to see people standing at intersections holding up signs that say "Homeless Veterans Administration, Anything Helps!"

Found this on the web posted by another veteran. 100% truth here. VA Dirty Tricks Veterans Need to Know About 1) Deny or Ignore Everything This is the most commonly used dirty trick in the book. Many government and private agencies use this as their first line defense against any claim. They will either immediately deny your claim or they will ignore it. If they choose to ignore it, they will not acknowledge that they received your claim. If you try to find out if they did or not, they will make up excuses that will cause you to wait, tell you to call back, send you on an endless goose chase from one department to another, or they will repeatedly tell you to submit it over and over again. This is called “kicking the can down the road”. It serves many purposes. The main purpose is to discourage you and make you give up or distract you and cause you to forget or miss deadlines for filing documents or appeals or whatever you need to do. If you file the same claim again it creates a new disability compensation claim date cheating you out of your back pay. Another reason is that it distances them from the issues. This works to their advantage. Let me explain. Let’s say you filed for a back condition and the VA kicks the issue down the road for several years and in the meantime you develop some other medical conditions. Now, the VA doctors can begin to try to link your back pain to some non-service connected medical condition. Don’t laugh because they can get very creative when it comes to this trick. It also gives them time to confuse the issues. Suddenly, your medical records will be filled with fabricated evidence to support the VA’s position. They will twist everything you say to suit this purpose. For instance, the doctors ask you if your back hurts when you lift heavy things and naturally you tell them YES. Here’s what will be documented on your medical records:” Veteran complains of back pain from doing heavy lifting at home.” The VA just created a new cause for your back pain and it’s not service-connected. Or even better, “Veteran injured back at home today while lifting heavy object.” See how that works? They just made a chronic condition a NEW medical condition. On the other hand, if the VA injured you and you file an 11.51 disability claim, they do the opposite. For example, The VA tore my rotator cuff by surprising me with heavy sandbags for an x-ray without giving me a chance to refuse. Immediately, this torn rotator cuff became an old injury, it was suddenly labeled “chronic shoulder pain” and they attempted to fabricate a history of shoulder problems. Old injuries are new and new injuries are old, which brings me to dirty trick number two. 2) False Medical Records Most veterans don’t have copies of their military or VA medical records and depend on the VA to furnish them. Good luck with that; because the VA will both lie and say they don’t have the records or just deliberately destroy them. There goes your evidence. The Houston VA Regional Office told me for almost three years that they never received my Notice of Disagreement until I went down to the office in person and demanded to see my C-file and there it was on the very top of the file with their time stamp dated three years ago. That’s why you should get copies and read your medical records every time you go to the VA because if you don’t they will fabricate false medical records for you. They do it anyway, all the time. The VA doctors and nurses will quote you as saying things that are false. Their favorite misquote is pain. My VA records state that I tell the doctors I have no pain just about every time I go there, which is a bold faced LIE. Your back could be broken with bones sticking out and they will write on your medical records that your back appears to be normal with no visible sign of distress and patient denies back pain. Don’t think for one minute that VA doctors are your friend. They know that their job is to cover up, hide and distort medical evidence in your VA medical records and VA C-file if it’s connected to a disputed VA claim. And, don’t think the medical doctors are the only ones who do this. Your x-ray will be read wrong by the Radiologists. They won’t see that broken bone or compressed disk and if they acknowledge it at all, it will be coded in long Latin medical terms that you will have to look up in a medical dictionary to figure out what they’re trying to say and don’t count on VA medical doctors to explain it because they will tell you everything is NORMAL. Don’t believe me, just file a FTCA (federal torts claim act) and watch your medical records disappear like magic and new records appear debunking your claim Ever wonder how the VA gets away with these lies? Did you know that VA doctors can legally withhold medical information from you? That’s a fact. The practice of withholding pertinent medical information from patients in the belief that disclosure is medically contraindicated is known as “therapeutic privilege.” That means all the doctor has to do is think that you might be upset if you knew the truth, so he or she is not going to tell you. How convenient for them. The VA doctors will try to change dates, confuse facts, and create new reports with false information claiming they are backed up by prior records and reports. Perfect example is what the VA Radiologists did to my kidney X-rays and ultrasound. I had an ultrasound in 2013 that showed no sign of damage to my kidneys. The 2013 ultrasound stated that there was evidence that I had passed a kidney stone because it left a small distorted area inside one of my ureters. Then, in 2014 a VA dentist soaked my partials in poison that you clean countertops with and put them in my mouth. The corrosive poison caused burns in my mouth, throat and intestinal tract and resulted in atrophy of both of my kidney cortex. Want to know what my VA medical records say about it “Veteran’s current X-rays unchanged from 2013 ultrasound that shows atrophy of kidneys.” That’s a creative lie. The small distorted area now becomes atrophy and now applies to both kidneys. They tried to link the new injury to an old ultrasound. Nice try but no cigar. VA doctors love to use terms that are ambiguous. For instance, my thyroid levels were all off the chart. The VA doctor recorded in my medical records that the results of my thyroid levels were “low normal” , “high normal”, “moderately high normal” moderately low normal” and my favorite doublespeak catch all VA medical term “cumulatively normal”. So, what this VA doctor did was take all the abnormal results, add them together and then divide by the number of tests and presto; it’s now “cumulatively normal.” Here’s another example: On the report for my Compensation exam for the torn rotator cuff injury caused by Michael Debakey Medical Center, the doctor wrote that I injured myself “lifting weights”. Out of nowhere, now I’m a 62 year old disabled weight lifter. That’s another creative lie / half truth meant to confuse the issues. I can see this doctor defending her statement in Court. “Well, your Honor, the sandbags were weights and she was injured by lifting them so what part of that is a lie? “ 3) Research This is a dirty trick few veterans know about or even realize is happening to them. In the military you know you are government property because they just come out and tell you; but what they don’t tell you is that they have a legal right to experiment on you without your knowledge using untested drugs and treatments. Most veterans just give their permission by signing everything put in front of them without reading it. Read it sometime and you’ll see you gave away every human right you ever thought you had in exchange for treatment at a VA facility. I go to the VA Hospital in Houston, Texas. It is not called the VA Hospital. It is named Michael Debakey Medical Center. It is a TEACHING hospital and is owned by Baylor College of Medicine. I am no more than a guinea pig or laboratory rat to the students, residents and interns that staff this hell hole. It is literally run by students, residents and interns who have little experience and no one is teaching them. The head of the department is in his office doing paperwork or not there at all. I would say that some trainees learn by trial and error, but since they don’t know what they did wrong, they can never learn the right way to do it. They are overseen by whoever has been there the longest. It’s the blind leading the blind. They staff the entire hospital almost exclusively with these pimple faced inexperienced adolescents. There are very few real doctors with real life experience. Maybe you get someone who actually knows what they’re doing and maybe not. It’s Russian roulette with a loaded weapon. That’s not the way veteran’s healthcare should be. Why do you think your VA medical care is free? Why do you think they force veterans to go to VA doctors and VA facilities? They want to experiment on you. On the Hospital complex campus in Houston, the Research buildings are almost as big as the Hospital. Where do you think the VA Hospitals get their federal and state funding? Where do you think they get all that scientific data, medical literature and medical statistics? It’s from medical Research. The VA advertises that their facilities are on the “cutting edge” of medical science with the latest in drug therapy, new and improved treatments and surgical procedures. Its cutting edge all right and you’re the one getting all those new and untested drugs and medical treatments. Five or ten years down the road you or your family will be answering one of those television attorney commercials that say “Did you or someone you love die from this surgical procedure, implant, medication or treatment?” This leads into dirty trick number four. 4) The VA Profits From Your Death Pretend you’re a homicide detective working a murder case. You’re going to make a list of suspects consisting of who had motive and opportunity. Well, the VA is at the top of the list because the VA has both. Their motive is that they save money if you’re dead because your VA pension, VA Disability Compensation and all monthly and yearly VA benefits die with you. The VA definitely has opportunity because they have complete control over everything aspect of your health thru their VA medical care. They can give you the wrong medicine or treatment, wrong surgery, overdose you or just neglect you to death by doing absolutely nothing, like the secret waiting list for VA appointments that killed thousands of veterans. The VA saved a lot of money with that dirty trick. You see, that’s why they staff their VA hospitals, Clinics and medical facilities with unskilled and inexperienced students, interns and residents; they know that mistakes will be made and veterans will die. The VA’s only job is to cover it up and blame it on something else and that’s way too easy because they control your medical records. The VA can make your medical records document anything they want. You disobeyed doctor’s orders not to get out of bed and fell down a flight of stairs. They can say anything. Who’s going to dispute it? Not you. Not your family, unless they actually witnessed the injury or death and the chances of that happening are slim and none. Remember this, I talk from experience. I once spent three days in the Houston VA Hospital and went to check out and the nurses at the desk didn’t know there was a patient in my room. I told them “Yeah, I know you didn’t know because I didn’t see a nurse for three days.” But my medical records stated that they checked on me every two hours and everything was fine. What made me laugh was that my husband had spent the night there in my room with me for two nights and that’s against the rules. The few VA doctors that are actually experienced are either tucked away in an office somewhere and don’t see patients or have little experience themselves and probably graduated from one of the many Baylor Colleges. Nurses call their graduates “Baylor Butchers”. Worse than that, the rest of the staff doctors work at the VA because they couldn’t make it in private practice and civilian hospitals and clinics won’t hire them. Most staff VA doctors are foreigners from other countries with no credentials except a diploma. It’s really sad. I’m talking in general, of course. I’m sure there are a few good VA doctors out there, but they are too few to make a difference. Where were all the good VA doctors when the veterans on the secret waiting lists were dying? Answer me that? 5) Divide and Conquer When I came back from Afghanistan in December 2007 I was disabled. I knew it and my unit, the 160th Military Police knew it too, but they tried their best to cover it up. I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say I had multiple medical issues that my unit military doctors did not, could not or would not diagnose or document. As a direct result of that, I had to try to figure out myself what to claim on my VA disability Compensation Claim. My medical conditions had to be in my military medical records because I don’t have x-ray vision and could not run the medical and laboratory tests I needed for diagnosis, so I settled on 25 known medical conditions. I know what you’re saying. Wow. No wonder you had so much problems. True, but you don’t understand. If I didn’t claim them at that time, and claimed them later, I would lose out on my back pay. The VA disability compensation program is designed that way for that exact reason. They want you to wait to claim medical conditions because it saves them money. But it doesn’t really matter because even if you had two medical claims, they can divide it by denying one and granting the other, thereby forcing you to appeal or give you a partial decision on one issue and reserve the other issue so they can” kick the can down the road.” See, VA dirty trick number One. This “Divide and Conquer” technique serves many purposes. The main purpose is that this dirty trick allows the VA to generate a perpetual ‘backlog” of disability claims which means more federal funding for them. The VA created this “hamster wheel” to keep veteran’s compensation claims forever at your local VA Regional Office, which leads me to VA dirty trick number six. 6) The Hamster Wheel The local VA Regional Offices deliberately deny claims so they can be appealed, we already know this, but what you may not know is that they do this by making “vague” and “unsupported” decisions so that when it is appealed and goes to the Board of Veteran Appeals, it is certain to be REMANDED (sent back to them). This is done deliberately. Example: My clothing allowance claim was for forearm crutches for my service-connected Fibromyalgia/Traumatic Brain Injury. When the Houston VA Regional Office denied it, they wrote that it was denied because my medical records stated my forearm crutches were for a non-service connected back condition. That is a deliberate lie and they know it and I know it, but now I have to appeal it to the Board of Veteran Appeals and prove it is a lie. It was done on purpose to put me on the Hamster Wheel. Putting a veteran’s claim on this VA created Hamster Wheel allows the local VA Regional Offices to sit on your claim for another three or four years and starts the entire process all over again just as if you filed a brand new claim. No final decision. Now you have to wait for more appointments for more tests, more doctor visits, more x-rays, then wait for another decision, then file another Notice of Disagreement and wait for another Statement of the Case and appeal it and then wait for it to be certified back to the Board of Veteran Appeals. The VA motto which should be on every Department of Veteran Affairs document as their letterhead “Delay and Deny till the Day they Die”. Sandra Hale, Retired Nurse, Combat Veteran

The VARO and VAMC are the gate keepers to your benefits and you will not prevail there. They are a self serving TAX funded ponzi scheme. Get your stuff to BVA, the sooner the better!

"I cant give you a specific denial" That statement implies, I want to deny you, but I need a good reason.

"I cant give you a specific denial" That statement implies, I

Full time is 12 Hours. You get paid full time Online. This is the reg they are supposed to live by. http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M28R.asp Before you go meet with the counselor, know what your goal is. Have interviews with potential employers. Get the job market data from the dept of labor for your area.. If the market is not good in your area for the career, make sure moving to where it is in in your plan. Drop this on your counselors desk at the first appointment. You will need your counselors email address as well as her supervisors. Do not let them drag you along, pressure them through email to do their job. Save these emails for your senator.

Any veterans here have experience dealing with a VAMC or C&P in Mississippi? Im just wondering if all VA employees in Mississippi are blind or if it is just me.

Dealing with the VA has been an unbelievable nightmare. I dont know how they have been allowed to get away with it this long. On a more positive note, this site has been very helpful and I want to thank everyone for giving me the bullets to fight back with.

I need a Lawyer. Can someone suggest one ?

This site is great!

Below is a claim I filed in June 2007 Service connection for loss of use of Arms. Service connection for Tinnitus Service Connection for PTSD Service conection for back injury Service conection for respiratory problems as due to an undiagnosed illness. Evidence Service Treatment Records VCAA Letters Letter they sent requesting info, that I didnt respond to. St. Francis Medical Certificate There is no mention of any local VAMC treament records. On the initial claim form I specifically state that I was treated at the local VAMC for PTSD. They are in posession of the VAMC records from 92-93 all of which complain about my injury in a tank crash when I was in Desert Storm in MAR 91. They denied a 93 claim for this condition stating they were not able to get my service medical records which is BS because I sent for them when they told me that and I had them in less than a month from St.Louis. I still have the cover letter they sent me. Service connection for loss of use of Arms. Service connection may be granted for a disability which began in military service or was caused by some event or experience in service. We have denied your claim for sevice connection for loss of use of arms. We based this decision on your service treatment records which do not show a chronic disability for the claimed condition during your military service. The evidence received in connection with your claim fails to show you have been clinically diagnosed with any neurolgical condition of your arms as well as establish any relationship between loss of use of arms and any disease or injury during military service. Service connection for loss of use of arms is denied since this condition neiter occurred in nor was caused by service. IGNORED SMR Brachial Plexus/Neck/Thoracic Injury MAR 23, 1990 There is a stick man on the record showing L ARM ROM 90 deg Abduction Head 30 deg any direction. This record is mentioned below under Service conection for back injury but does not mention ROM SMR Thoracic Injury Jan 21, 1992 Diagnosed: Causalgia persistent after injury in Desert Storm last Mar 91. Shoulder positions causes pain in chest radiating to back, pain doing pushups and situps. note: I was subsequently awarded 10% for a sprained L shoulder on a later claim filed in 2010. The claim was for the same condition above. Service connection for Tinnitus Service connection may be granted for a disability which began in military service or was caused by some event or experience in service. We have denied your claim for service connection for tinnitus. We based this decision on your service treatment records which does not show a chronic disability for the claimed condition during your military service. The evidence received in connection with your claim fails to establish any relationship between tinnitus and any disease or injury during military service. Service connection for tinnutis is denied since this condition neither occurred in nor was caused by service. The cited treatment records from Columbus Speech and Hearing Center show a diagnosis of tinnutis, however, the evidence fails to show your tinnutis is related to your military service. This ignores: SMR Neck injury Mar 16, 1990 SMR Neck/Thoracic Injury MAR 23, 1990 The neck injury is mentioned under Service conection for back injury but not here. COMABT EXPOSURE NO C&P Exam 10% TINNITUS NSC I dont know what happened there. Maybe the rater was gonna award 10% and his supervisor jumped on him and made him change it. Service Connection for PTSD Service connection for PTSD requires medical evidence diagnosing the condition in accordance with 38 CFR 4.125 (a); a link, established by medical evidence, between current symptoms and an in-service stressor; and credible supporting evidence that the claimed in service stressor occurred. If the evidence establishes that the veteran engaged in combat with the enemy and the claimed stressor is related to that combat, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, and provided that the claimed stressor is consistent with the circumstances, conditions, or hardshis of the veteran's service, occurrence of the claimed in-service stressor may be established by the veterans lay testimony alone. If the evidence establishes that the veteran was a POW under those provisions this is all boiler plate... Your service treatment records are negative for complaint, treatment, or diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder during your active military service. The evidence received in connection with your claim fails to show a confirmed diagnosis of PTSD. The evidence of record fails to show a verifiable stressor. Your DD214, separation document, fails to show that you received any decorations or medals that would infer that you participated in a combat stressful event. We asked you to complete and return VA form 21-0781 to verify stress producing events. As of today's date, our office has received no reply to this request for evidence. Therefore, we were not able to send a request to JSRRC to verify the stressors. Here they mention nothing about my Southwest Asia Deployment. But under Service conection for respiratory problems as due to an undiagnosed illness. They aknowledge my deployment to SWA in the first sentence. And on the initial claim paperwork I told them I was treated at the local VAMC in 96 for PTSD, but those records are not mentioned. NO C&P exam Service conection for back injury The claim for serviceconection for back and shoulder injury is considered reopened. However, the evidence continues to show this condition was not incurred in or aggravated by military service. Service treatment records note you complained of back pain in the middle of your back in Jan 1990 after carrying and loading heavy objects on trucks. Objective findings noted there were no swelling or discoloration. There was tenderness and muscles appeared to be very tight. You had full range of motion. Assessment shows as strained muscle. Then in March 1990, you complained of pain in the upper back and neck after practicing self defense on the prior day. Assessment shown as upper back strain. You were treated conservatively with motrin 400mg. The medical record for this incident has a picture of a stick figure man on it with inability to raise L Arm above 90 degrees or head 30 Deg in any direction. The rater does not mention ROM for this injury or how it happened because it would contradict them under loss off use of arms... The cited treatment records from St. Francis note you were treated for accute myofascial strain of the lumbar in may 2006; however, the evidence fails to show this condition is related to your military service. Only if you ignore the Xray and the DDD part stating Schmorls nodes superior and inferior endplates of the anterior L1 which could be early onset osteophytes but cannot rule out injury. This is a compression fracture when I was injured in the turret. After I was slammed into the main gun I was slammed into the seat injurying my Lumbar. 96 VAMC Xray specifically shows the same abnormality of the L1 vertebrae and the SMR 3/20/92 I am complaining about left lower quardant rediculitis from the thoracolumbar junction. A disability which began in service or was caused by some event in service must be considered "chronic" before service connection can be granted. Although there is a record of treatment in service for back injury, no permanent residual or chronic disability subject to service connection is shown by the service medical records or demonstrated by evidence following service. Therefore service connection for back injury is denied. They ignored: SMR Thoracic Injury 1/21/1992 SMR Thoracic complaints 1/29/1992 SMR Thoracic complaints 2/21/1992 SMR LLQ muscle Strain 3/20/1992 VAMC Thoracic Dec 1992 VAMC Thoracic June 1993 VAMC Lumbar 1996 VAMC Thoracic/LUMBAR 94, 95, 96 Service conection for respiratory problems as due to an undiagnosed illness. Your service period in Southwest Asia was for the period December 31, 1990 to May 18, 1991. There, they aknowledge I was deployed to Southwest Asia for Desert Shield and Desert Storm. My service medical record states I was injured in a tank while there and have difficulty breathing among other things. But they are ignoring the records. Boiler Plate : The Gulfwar veterans benefits act authorizes VA to compensate any Gulfwar veteran suffering from a chronic disability resulting from an undiagnosed illness or combination of undiagnosed illnessess. To fulfill the requirement for chronicity the claimed illness must have persisted for a period of 6 months. The 6 month period of chronicity is measured from the earliest date on which all pertinent evidence establishes that the signs or symptoms of the disability first became manifest. Your service treatment records were reviewed and considered. These records are negative for complaint, treatment, or diagnosis, of a chronic respiratory condition during your active military service. In addition there is no medical evidence of record indicating you were diagnosed with a respiratory condition that manifested to a compensable degree within 1 year of your discharge from military service. The disability must have persisted for a period of at least 6 months. Service connection for respiratory problems is denied since you have not been clinically diagnosed with a chronic disabling respiratory condition that has persisted for a period of 6 months. The respiratory problems are related to a neck and upper thoracic injury not a GULFWAR SYNDROME. This is documented in my SMR 1/21/1992, difficulty breathing persistent after injury in DS in Mar. 1991. That is 8 mos. No C&P Exams I know its a lot of information. I had too many injuries and too many ingorant people treating me, but ignorance does not negate the facts.

John I was in the 8ID attached to 1st BDE 3RD AD TF 4-32. For 2 weeks I was based at the Khobar Towers waiting for our vehicles to come in. Our building was at the entrance with a view of the patriot battery. Didnt know this until missiles started flying and exploding over our building with shit rainign down including the warheads. This went on for 2 weeks until we went out into the desert beginning of Feb 91 and sat on the border for 3 weeks waitng to make our advance on 24th of Feb. You might recall Schwarzkopf describing a left hook, I was there! I have the SWA ribbon with 2 bronze stars and the Kuwait liberation medal.

This was a claim I filed in 2007. I never appealed it, it is final as of Jul. 2008. I started a new claim in 2010 and they awarded me 10% for L Shoulder in Oct 2013 which ignores the neurological conditions associated with it like winged scapula, trapezius atrophy, inability to abduct L Arm above 90 Deg. They pulIed a L shoulder sprain outta somewhere... Man I cant afford anything. My electricity is about to be cut off. I got kids and a german wife that I cant even afford to get legalized here so she can work or drive or anything.

As the subject line states. The Local VARO denied all of my claims without considering evidence in their possession or ordering C&P exams. They awarded 10% NSC for Tinnitus ignoring my documented whiplash injuries and my combat. They denied claims for loss of use of L Arm ignoring the documented neurolical condition. They denied PTSD ignoring that I was attacked for 2 weeks by ballistic missiles followed by engaing the republican guard. They denied respiratory problems ignoring documeted difficulty breathing. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong? Basically they are telling me there is no evidence to support any of my claims but they cite the evidence they are ignoring. Im confused!