lumbosacral Me? Have Valvular Heart Disease...

Cherie33 · November 22, 2007

Hi All!

I made a shocking discovery..

Many years ago, I remember filing a claim regarding my Heart Murmur. At that time, I was told that it wasn't service connected.

Well, lets see, I have been placed in the Independent Living Program, and one thing that I had to do, is get permission from my primary care physician to be able to join a gym. Now, when I received the form that I needed to give to my doctor, in the mail and opened it, I was shocked at what I read.

The VA had listed the following things:

Code % SC Description

9434 50 Y Major Depression Disorder

7319 30 Y Irritable Colon

5237 0 N Lumbosacral or cervical strain

6513 0 N Sinusitis

6602 0 N Asthma

7000 0 N Valvular Heart Disease

Valvular Heart Disease? oh guess what...aka Heart Murmur! Not only that, I have my Boot Camp medical records and there are plenty complaints by me of some of the symptoms of Valvular Heart Disease, I read about. I even filed a claim, as I mentioned above. My question now is, where do I go from here. I always thought that I should have been service connected for Valvular Heart Disease, because they certainly wouldn't have permitted me in the service if it was diagnosed in the pre-medical evaluation for the military. What do you all think I should do?

Cherie33

Edited November 22, 2007 by Cherie33

Ron II · November 22, 2007

Hi All!

I made a shocking discovery..

Many years ago, I remember filing a claim regarding my Heart Murmur. At that time, I was told that it wasn't service connected.

Well, lets see, I have been placed in the Independent Living Program, and one thing that I had to do, is get permission from my primary care physician to be able to join a gym. Now, when I received the form that I needed to give to my doctor, in the mail and opened it, I was shocked at what I read.

The VA had listed the following things:

Code % SC Description
9434 50 Y Major Depression Disorder
7319 30 Y Irritable Colon
5237 0 N Lumbosacral or cervical strain
6513 0 N Sinusitis
6602 0 N Asthma
7000 0 N Valvular Heart Disease

Valvular Heart Disease? oh guess what...aka Heart Murmur! Not only that, I have my Boot Camp medical records and there are plenty complaints by me of some of the symptoms of Valvular Heart Disease, I read about. I even filed a claim, as I mentioned above. My question now is, where do I go from here. I always thought that I should have been service connected for Valvular Heart Disease, because they certainly wouldn't have permitted me in the service if it was diagnosed in the pre-medical evaluation for the military. What do you all think I should do?

Cherie33

Hello,

It appears that the VA denied your claim for valvular heart disease, much like I was denied compensation for hearing loss in my right ear. In my case, it's almost like it doesn't exist because I couldn't prove service connection. If you feel the VA's decison was incorrect, you should refile your claim with "new and material evidence." I did the same for sinus bradycardia and eventually was given a rating.

Cherie33 · November 22, 2007

Hello,

It appears that the VA denied your claim for valvular heart disease, much like I was denied compensation for hearing loss in my right ear. In my case, it's almost like it doesn't exist because I couldn't prove service connection. If you feel the VA's decison was incorrect, you should refile your claim with "new and material evidence." I did the same for sinus bradycardia and eventually was given a rating.

So, are you saying, I should ask them to re-open this claim? I'm not really sure how to approach this, when it has right there in my medical records, which I think they already considered. So, I don't know what new and material evidence I might have. Any suggestions?

Cherie33

Ron II · November 26, 2007

Paraphrased from an earlier post by a Hadit elder--

1. you must have a documented and current disability (documentation may be from a civilian doctor)

2. There must be in your SMRs [service medical records] -something in your service that you claim is causing the present disability.

3. you must have a documented nexus [association]- the link betwen # 1 and # 2.

If a vet has a chronic condition documented by a doctor it does not necessarily mean the condition is due to service.

Question: "How do I know (can I find out) what evidence the VA had when the decided to deny me? "

The VA should have listed the total evidence in the denial. If you did not file a NOD [notice of disagreement] they did not have to expand the reason for denial in a Statement of the CAse-

You can go to the NARA [Nationial Archieves] web site and click on military records and print off the SF 180 ,fill out, sign, copy amd send,or apply on line for your SMRs.

New and material evidence is evidence the VA has never seen before, evidence that is not cumulative to what they already have, and evidence that has a direct bearing on the claim.

Ron II · November 26, 2007