ptsd Save It All From The Va

[Berta]

I realised that my POA in 2003 saw little monetary benefit in my AO claim.

They did not consider Nehmer and probably thought all I would receive was a small funeral expense refund.

The autopsy was free because Rod was an organ donor and he had to be cremated.

I knew VA could not dupplicate the DIC under 1151 I receive with direct SC DIC but I believed they would have to refund to me a very substantial offset to my DIC due to my FTCA settlemnt.NVLSP at first agreed with me and then said they did not think so-

I have almost two full filing cabinets on Rods and my claims and am prepared to succeed in direct SC death under one of the three claims I have at the RO all supported by evidence and I can always get another IMO if needed.

I anticipated that I would have quite a battle with VA over this offset refund- sometimes I wondered where I got the idea because NVLSP said they never heard of a claim like mine- so they really had no idea what VA would do.

I have been gping through alot of VA paperwork for another reason but found a decision I got from the BVA in 2000.

This was a CUE claim and I think it is the one VA is trying to re-open. It clearly states: "the appelant has been granted DIC benefits puruant to 38 USC Section 1151, she could not receive a duplicate of these benefits under 38, 1310 for the cause of the veteran's death.

On the other hand,if she prevailed on the claim of service connection for the cause of the veteran's death,on the basis that his fatal illnesses were related to military service (my AO claim)

or were secondary to or aggravated by service connected PTSD ( my 2 other claims), it appears that there would be no offset of monies recovered under the Federal Tort CLaims Act settlement and she could possibly be entitled to burial benefits."

That BVA statement will support my claim ,when I succeed for the refund of a very large offset taken from my DIC.

Now I know where I got the idea that they would owe me this- from the BVA decision itself.

There were other points in this decision that now seem to me why the RO wants to re-open this claim.

I have never seen a challenge to the regs like my claim and neither has NVLSP but my point is-my vet reps didnt even see the point of it- their annual report shows how much the get vets in retro so they should have realised that these were claims they should have supported.

If the VA attempts to take a FTCA offset from an award that subsequently becomes a Direct SC award-

the veteran or widow MUST fight it.

And a subsequent SC award can make an 1151 award moot-and render additional benefits to the veteran or widow.

[carlie]

Berta,

That was my big point in a prior post I made. It was me paraphrasing one of your rules.

Read, read and read over again all VA & BVA decisions and/or paperwork.

They will many times give you the ammunition you need to WIN ! ! !

You go girl.

jmho,

carlie

[rentalguy1]

Yeah...I've kept everything that the military/VA ever gave me in writing. I went back through all of it over the weekend and found where I had put in for SC on tinnitus and GERD and didn't even remember it. They denied the tinnitus because I "wasn't exposed to hazardous noises." I was a helicopter crewchief, lmao. I have audiology reports from my SMR's that state "routinely exposed to hazardous noise." On the GERD they said while I had taken NSAID's in the army, it didn't warrant SC because I didn't complain of GERD until 1998 (4 years after seperation). Gee, I was in my mid-twenties and had heartburn...I guess I should have ran to the Dr., huh? I went back through my SMR's and found about a dozen instances where I was prescribed powerful NSAID's, then I went online to be sure there was a correlation to GERD. Looks like I'm filing another claim.