Hypothetical Case Of A Accident Caused By A Disability

[tk3000]

Consider a sc veteran that has chronic pain in his hips. The veteran is riding his motorcycle, there is a bump and the motorcycle has small loss of stability for a second and concomitantly the bump causes the veteran a very sharp pain in his hip which then makes the veteran to complete loose control and to fall from his motorcycle and ended up involved in a serious accident: and the veteran has a serious fracture in his arm (needing surgery, etc).

How hard is for the veteran to prove that the accident and its consequences (injury) is related to his hip disability (pain)?. And how hard is it for the VA to prove that it is not related to his hip disability?

tk

[tk3000]

Even if you could prove that the accident was related to the hip..........what would the VA do about it?

As far as the VA taking care of the arm injury........if the veteran is SC'd, then it would depend upon his disability rating....but most probably, the VA would take care of him if he was injured.............hypothetically. But, connecting the accident to hip pain to get the arm service connected or secondarily connected..............ooooooooops, I'm sorry, I just ran outta beer, I'll be right back............okay, now what WAS the question....I coulda sworn that I heard somebody ask if their lack of motorcycle riding ability could be connected to their military service?

I have seen a legal case (not VA related) of an employee who had a disability which caused him an accident, sued the company for which he worked. And ended up wining hundreds of thousands of dollars. I believe that in law it is called the "benefit of doubt", one could say that it is as likely that the accident was caused by the "hip disability" as it could be in function of "riding ability" for instance and that the judge would then decide in favor of the litigant.

[purple]

That's the civilian world...and IMO that's a frivilous lawsuit.....this is the VA world...whole different set of rules. Is someone you know planning this?

[tk3000]

I have seen cases where service conected conditions have caused veterans to fall and they were able to file claims.

I have also seen cases where Veterans were taking Metropolol and their heart rates were dropping too low and the Vets were passing out while opererating vehicles and filing claims.

Look your situation up in the BVA files at the BVA website. You may be suprised.

J

I have seen a VA case of a veteran who lost one arm. The veteran was performing some task that did require both arms, in the veteran's mind he would sometimes act spontaneously at moments (seconds) as if he still had both arms. In that particular case the absence of one arm (the veteran very often at instants would feel and act as if he had both) and the fact that the veteran acted as if he had both arms when performing that particular task (don't remember the task now) the veteran got involved in a serious accident and broke his leg. I believe that the veteran was granted service connected at the BVA level.

It also related to my case in a sense because I have a serious balance issues specially when going up and downstairs. And at all my C&P exams for my left leg condition my C&P examiner proactively always asked me if I had balance issue in function of my left leg condition and if such balance issue could cause another accident (feeling of pending disaster, etc).

[jbasser]

On second thought the bump caused you to lose control and not the SC condition.

Now if you were scooting around on the hog and you had a heart attack and were SC for heart disease and wound up with a bad road rash and broken bones, That would be different.

The condition must directly cause you injury. I belive that is how the reg states it.

J

[rentalguy1]

Not a snowball's chance in hell. Sorry. If sc'd hips caused a vet to fall down and break an arm, it would be easy to get a secondary sc, though.

[MRRRR5]

Even if you could prove that the accident was related to the hip..........what would the VA do about it?

As far as the VA taking care of the arm injury........if the veteran is SC'd, then it would depend upon his disability rating....but most probably, the VA would take care of him if he was injured.............hypothetically. But, connecting the accident to hip pain to get the arm service connected or secondarily connected..............ooooooooops, I'm sorry, I just ran outta beer, I'll be right back............okay, now what WAS the question....I coulda sworn that I heard somebody ask if their lack of motorcycle riding ability could be connected to their military service?

:D ...