Decision On Claim Arrived Yesterday

[Phred]

I have about a hundred questions as I'm reading through this paper work but I'd like to start with what does this mean: "The VA examiner stated that he could not assess the degree of leg pain related to your service connected injuries without meter speculation."

[purple]

first, be sure you adhere to the appeal timelines if indeed you plan on appealing this decision. it's very important to not let any of those deadlines pass!

then gather copies of all medical records yourself (active duty, civilian & VA) , and review them...ideally this would have been done with the initial submission. send the important info only to the VARO....if you can't prove the link between the current injury and the previous injury then there might be a problem. there's where you have your work cut out for you.

definitely find out what the rater meant by "impaired" & where the "ice" reference came from. impaired could mean from the previous injury and in this case, that's a good thing.

it's a lot of work to submit an airtight claim....but it can be done!

good luck!!

[danang_1969]

I also would also question their term "whie moderately impaired" what are they talking about. Where did that come from? There is where I think you will find the reason for the denial.

I think they do stuff like writing about thing in a decision, like the ice in May, to occupy and confuse the claim, so the vet will have to spend more time correcting their errors that are totally false, then he will have less time to just deal with the relevant things and prove the claim. The more the VA can complicate and the thicker they can make your file the longer it takes and the harder it is for the vet to put the truth together on paper.

[john999]

You need to get your own private doctor to review your wife's medical records and to examine her to rebut what the VA has decided. The way to fight a VA medical opinion is to get your own opinion from a board certified specialist. When you appeal you include this new medical opinion. If you are claiming that the original disability caused your wife to fall and make her condition worse that needs to be backed up by a doctor's opinion. The VA will never just accept such a claim without a medical opinion that would explain how the original injury led to the aggravation.

What proof do they have that she was "impaired"? Are they saying the accident was due to her being drunk or high on drugs? You know that anything said to any VA doctor or examiner will be used against you. If you say you had one beer they interpret that as your being falling down drunk.

[MRRRR5]

Phred,

Welcome to HADIT and thank you and your spouse for your service to the nation.

First, I would say that you have been given some great advice thus far.

Second, it appears to me that you (or your wife) did not keep copies of the complete claim for increase, or the initial claim submitted to the VARO. B)

Just remember to keep everything you send to the VA; all documents, and send it certified mail or with some form of tracking to know that they received it.

Good luck to you.

[Berta]

With her SC disability already established- it is higher likely that the SC caused her to lose her balance and fall- and therefore residuals of the fall should be claimed if compensable and she certainly should ask for higher rating.

The VA will make ambiguous statements to throw us off-

"impaired" could mean many things here- she already has an impairment-the SC disability.

The actual med recs and C file will tell you exactly what you need to rebutt-

I mentioned this before- but it might help-

the VARO for 3 years knocked my Section 1151 claim down many times. I had no IMO and never even thought I would need one (wrongful death claim)

The 3rd VA med opinion doctor stated -out of the blue- that the veteran possibly died due to a fatal overdose of cocaine.and not due to the malpractice I had charged.

Say what? I was livid that they would stoop that low-

Well the autopsy the RO contionually 'lost' had a full toxicology report attached as my husband was an organ donor.

I hit them with every bit of evidence I had on their cocaine statement.

I included the proven fact that my husband could not see money denominations or tell if he had a nickel or a quarter in his pocket due to residuals from his 1151 stroke.He never had more then 2-3 bucks on him,and I think drugs cost more than that.

Also he was in VA Day Treatment- whereby the van picked him up in the AM and he spent 3-4 days at the VAMC itself.

He wasnt even aroud drugs unless the VA itself had cocaine on their premises-

( this story gets longer -my point is they dropped that idea right away- and I did succeed on my claim)-

years later I spoke to the Cocaine statement doctor and he immediately sent me his actual report-

he had raised this issue but the VA had parsed his report entirely and never told this VA doc that a complete toxicology had been done for the Organ Donation people.

I checked every single venue of rebuttal at the time I got this SSOC and also called the VA director's office- and asked them if in fact the VAMC did have any cocaine on their premises-to my astonishment the director's secretary told me the Bath VA DID have cocaine-

liquid cocaine in a vault from the days when they did oral surgery-years and years ago-

My COngressman-getting this info from me-(I couldnt wait to call him on this one) called them right away as he was astonished at the fact they did have any cocaine there and would even suggest that any type of drug like this caused my husband's death.

I dont know if liquid cocaine is the same as the street drug and I do know it used to be used to stop bleeding during oral surgery but this VA didnt do oral surgery since the Civil War as far as I know .My COngressman asked them why it was there-dont know why-and I have no idea what happened to the local VA's stash.

I wonder what else is in that safe.

The VA will do, in some cases and not all, anything they can to get out of awarding SC comp.

Every negative statement they make has to be clearly rebutted with both common sense and with medical evidence.

If the VA said "Ice" was cause of fall (and not secondary to her SC problems) you could get a weather report from NOA for same date and locale and easily knock that idea down.

By the way-is she working? and does this SC prevent her from working? If so she should apply for TDIU.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Berta

[LarryJ]

I think they do stuff like writing about thing in a decision, like the ice in May, to occupy and confuse the claim, so the vet will have to spend more time correcting their errors that are totally false, then he will have less time to just deal with the relevant things and prove the claim. The more the VA can complicate and the thicker they can make your file the longer it takes and the harder it is for the vet to put the truth together on paper.

Or, they do this to you:

"the veteran (that'd be me, in this case) is most likely genetically pre-disposed to arthritis............"

WHAT?

Where the heck did that come from?

GENETICS?

The only thing that C&P examiner knew about me, genetically, is that I'm a JewBoy. Are Jew's genetically inclined to have arthritis?

So, I began the "battle of words" with the C&P and the RO!

Just killin time and hangin on. Hey, that ought to make a good title for a C&W song!