Jump to content
VA Disability Community via Hadit.com

VA Disability Claims Articles

Ask Your VA Claims Question | Current Forum Posts Search | Rules | View All Forums
VA Disability Articles | Chats and Other Events | Donate | Blogs | New Users

jbgruver

Seaman
  • Posts

    5
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About jbgruver

  • Birthday 08/13/1943

Contact Methods

  • Skype
    jbg123

Profile Information

  • Military Rank
    PFC E-3
  • Location
    Hayward, CA
  • Interests
    Tinkering, home repair and maintenance, mechanics

Previous Fields

  • Service Connected Disability
    100%
  • Branch of Service
    Army
  • Hobby
    Amateur Radio K6JBG

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

jbgruver's Achievements

  1. The Law firm is Kazmierczak & Kazmierczak in New Jersey and they have a web site. They did my case on a fee contingency basis and there portion is 20% limited by Federal Law. There are many Veterans Service Organizations like the DAV or Disabled American Veterans and CalVet that did my original claim. There are also a few registered agents that can help I do believe they charge a fee??? Lawyers as well. My friend went to the DAV and became a member, lifetime I do believe, and he got 7 years back disability pension pay! The Veterans Service Organizations work for free! Of course they have to have funding as nothing is for free. Membership dues is not enough so Foundation funds, donations, and perhaps Government grants are involved. Sadly the current regime wants to cut everything they can like the government is "A Profit Making Corporation" a ruthless bloodsucking money making machine where the bottom line is the "Governing" or controlling factor! Only there is no bottom line and no profit incentive for the CEO when running a Government OR attempting to run one! You cannot play Football with Baseball rules or vice versa. A profit making Corporation or Business uses a Business Plan that is not applicable to running a Government! I feel okay about the 20% contingency fee due to the fact that the Law firm took a look at all my files from my current existing Award plus all the information I could gather from The American Lake VA Hospital Mental Health Building [200 + patients and one Psychiatrist - a hot setup] in Tacoma, Washington State from my 3 month stint there in 1971. Where I first applied, and the staff Lawyer there saw a chance for a CUE challenge of my first application in 1971. Otherwise I would have never known there was a chance to pursue this challenge and appeal it. A fee contingency contract can be terminated by either party at anytime. The legal arena is no place for Amateurs - as many have found out. The Oakland, CA VARO rejected my claim in short order - bada be, bada bam, bada boom! So I filed a BVA Appeal! You have to have the attitude that no matter who poo poohs it, you have to tell them "Oh no, we are going to go all the way, and that is it"!
  2. Oh my rank at discharge was PFC-3 and I was in the U S Army and not the U S Navy. My profile states this but the Forum Software thinks differently??
  3. James, It went to the VARO first and they flat rejected it in short order! So I filed an appeal to the BVA. This all started on 02/13/2011 is the earliest date of documents I have on file. I used a Law Firm that I will disclose if it is okay to do this here. Until I talked to one of the firms lawyers and he reviewed all of the documents I sent to him I had no idea that there was any chance of doing this claim for a CUE to get an EED! It took right at 7 years of waiting - I am 74 and I thought I would be dead before I got an answer let alone an award letter! It has been a L O N G 7 years. Perhaps I will get to spend a few pennies of it before I am "Pushing up Daisies" or "Sitting in an Urn on the fireplace mantle"? The only true currency we have is time! All of the Money and Power in the Universe will not buy anyone one more second of life here when it is time to go! There is a 100% chance that we will die! Also we never own anything - we just get to use it while we are here! These are facts of life that these people that are filthy rich, with, in some cases, enough assets to live like royalty for a hundred or MORE lifetimes and still want more money to HOARD do not seem to address? When you think of what all that money could do for the poor and less fortunate if they plowed it back into the society that made them rich in the first place? A few do like Bill Gates and his foundation are spending money all over the world in the most impoverished of areas and nations! John
  4. I received my Award letter granting my Appeal for CUE granting me an Earlier Effective Date for my 100% Service Connected Disability Pension. It stretches from September 1, 1971 to January 27, 2003. My appeal Lawyer says he has to present a brief to the VRO outlining what I think I should be getting paid. I was shocked to say the least. The granting of CUE claims is apparently rare. I was told that my case may not reach the VRO for another 30 days and it will take some time for it to be reviewed by at least 3 review officers after the amount of the Award is determined. Determining the amount is very complicated because I went through five (3) "Successful" Marriages during this time window two children from the first which lasted a year after 1971. Putting the dates together for these Earth shaking events will be difficult as I will have to contact each of my Ex's to nail them down or else research vital statistics at the record centers involved. I do not think the VRO will want to use the expensive time to go over all of this "Historical Data" and petition me for a compromise? This covers a period of 31 years, 4 months, and 26 days. I would like to hear from others who have gone through this type of process in order to get some idea of what I am facing and how long it will take to get it funded? The way things are going, with "Savage Barbarians" at the helm, I may just get told to "Go to Hell"? These are Treacherous times! My Disability is Bipolar Affective Disorder aka Manic Depressive. i.e. I am F'ing Nuts!
  5. My right leg was amputated below the knee on the day before Thanksgiving in 2005. This was due to a sequence of mistakes made by "Alleged" medical personal at the Palo Alto Veteran's Administration Health Care System. It started in the Podietry Department in early 2004, when I foolishly trusted them to take care of a callus on the right underside of my great toe on my right foot. Instead of removing the callus by reducing the bone under the skin which was obviously pinching the skin patch against the bottom of my shoes, an implicitly entrusted future Doctor of Podiatry, performed a Hallux Rigidus procedure on me without explaining anything to me beforehand. [i do believe that is in and of itself illegal?] This procedure destroys the joint at the base of the great toe. The tendon attached to the top end of the great toe is used to move the foot up and down, so that was detached and reattached at the base of the great toe. A short while later I was walking short distances inside of my house in slippers. At the end of the day I sat down on the end of the bed, took off the slippers, and there was a silver dollar size blister on the ball of my right foot. Three edges of the skin around the blister were detached. [Foolishly] My Wife and I went back to the VA Podiatry Department and an Intern or a Resident [The two full time staff Podiatrists were "supposed to be" supervising the Interns and the Residents...they never showed up in any room I was in at any time!] proceeded to "cut off" the flap of skin...the part with a blood supply still intact..no less! Later we learned that cutting off the skin flap was the wrong thing to do. The open hole in my foot was treated outpatient (?). [Anyone in their right mind would have had me admitted] They fitted me with a rigid boot with a hole cut in the foot insert, designed to avoid having the insert touching the raw bottom of the blister crater. They tried attaching artificial skin [very expensive stuff] over the hole at least 5 times. My foot proceeded to get infected with what they called "Osteo Myelitis", which led to a "Trans Metatarsal Amputation" right behind the edge of the blister crater. I was fitted with a Frankenstein shoe for my right foot. In August of 2005 I went to the ER with an infection at the end of my foot where they amputated. I was admitted and spent three months with picc line IV doses of antibiotics twice a day 24/7. My Wife and I were told that "Hyperbaric" treatment was one of the best ways to heal my foot, but we were unable to arrange this at the Travis Air Force Base. [Of course the VA personnel would not even think of giving us special dispensation to go to a civilian hospital in the area that had a "Hyperbaric" chamber...you get roughly twice the oxygen concentration of the outside air in such a chamber at two atmospheres pressure...I do believe] The antibiotics failed to work. So come November 25. 2005 the decission to do a below the knee amputation was made. Then it was revised in December of 2005. On or about March of 2006, after wearing shrink soxs for several weeks, a prosthetist attempted to fit me with a prosthetic leg. He wound up making 4 sockets...none of which worked. He told me that in his experience it appeared that my leg had been amputated battle field style...quick and dirty...where the plan is ship the amputee back to a regular hospital for "revision" with the Tibia end properly prepared for a prosthetic. I went upstairs to the complaint department and told the whole story. The ship hit the sand and I was contacted by two of the prosthetist's bosses..."We don't want our employees saying things they shouldn't"!..."We think Mr. so and so is poisoning your mind"! In other words our employees are supposed to "Lie by Omission" and to hell with the "Patients best Interest"! "Lie by Omission" to cover our ass and the "Tin God" Doctor's ASSES. I received a third revision on or about May of 2006. I then spent eight months with a bleeding stump which meant you can't take the prosthetic home! I went to the ER, same day clinic, Orthopedics, you name it, week after week. Nobody at the VA facility had a clue! Finally my Wife booked me an appointment with the John Muir Wound Care Center in Walnut Creak, CA. I got up on the table and received a few locals on the end of my stump...and within five minutes the Docter pulled out four stiches left in the end of my stump. We filed a claim for all of our out of pocket costs at John Muir, including a $1,500.00 MRI. It was thrown out because "You were within commuting distance to a nearby VA medical facility"! The eight months of going to the VA facility week after week, with no relief, meant less than nothing! We filed an administrative complaint form 1151 I do believe, and received a letter stating "You recieved good generally accepted medical care" as stated by a DOCTOR ON THE VA'S PAYROLL!!! [insider trading aka Kangaroo Court] They gave me six months to file a suit in the 9th District Court and sue the U. S. Government. I could not find a Lawyer to take my case. I called several Lawyers and left messages and never received a call back. Question: Is there any chance of reopening this case? Yes, I am diabetic type two...oral meds.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use