Heart Disease

[popolop]

I want to know what can i do when the admin judge remanded my case back for the RO to try and establish etiology for my heart disease.Their argument was that because i was given a diagnosis of "chest wall pain" while in the army back in 1978 to 1982 that it did not establish a heart condition.I actually received an EKG and there was no blood work or heart cath.The judge wanted them to give me an exam and then make another medical opinion.Well they said that the exam was not necessary and they render the same medical opinion.Even when the judge asked them to and said that she thought that the many times i went on sick call for chest pains may have something to do with my condition now.Please advise

[jbasser]

Sharon is right on. You have to have the following.

A current condition.

A condition or start of a condition in service

A nexus linking the 2 together.

If you had hyertension in service or the first year out, that is one way to get it done.

The Judge may remand it back to the RO but without a strong nexus, The ro will not change his stance because he knows he can get away with it.

J

[Berta]

"The judge wanted them to give me an exam and then make another medical opinion.Well they said that the exam was not necessary and they render the same medical opinion.Even when the judge asked them to and said that she thought that the many times i went on sick call for chest pains may have something to do with my condition now.Please advise"

Can you give us the Docket number of your CAVC case here?

This answered a question I had for you in another post today- as to no blood work-

Th VA failed to properly diagnosis CAD in my husband.

6 years after his initial heart attack (treated by the VA with Sudafed)

a VA cardiologist -after he had done an ECHO on him years later-told me there was "nothing" wrong with his heart.

He dropped dead 2 years after the ECHO.

I read his medical records intently- and I also studied all I could on cardiology.

The AM he died he told me to re-open his 1151 claim if he died.He had charged the VA with malpractice in his claim.

Long story -I won FTCA claim and 1151 claim- and got the VA's admission that they had caused his death.

The heart diesase was only one of many medical erros they had made going back to his first heart attack-while he was VA employee- which they treated with sudafed.

You need to dig into every single medical record you have.

And read over carefully all of your SMRs.

Did you ever have blood work or any EKG done within the first year after service- for any employer's insurance policy?

I am assuming you meant a CAVC case judge but I sure could be wrong-dfid you mean a BVA remand?

would a VARO defy a BVA remand for a C & P ?

sure they would-

The first sentence of my response to the AMC regarding their recent decision was how they defied all of the conditions of a BVA remand.

Blood work- it took me a lot of study to understand what the blood values mean on these Chem reports.

Heart disease has many potential indicators in blood work.

But I am not a doctor- a good medical opiniopn will help you here.

What took me months to study- years ago-was confirmed by a Peer Review done by a VA physician 3 months after I filed the FTCA claim.The doctor told me he saw right away the proof of my charges (he was the Medical Director here in Bath VAMC)in the med recs.

With that report I never even considered getting an IMO.

But the report mysteriously vanished-and VA strung out the case for 2 more years.

I never did get an IMO but had presented a medically accurate case with plenty of evidence and succeeded.

And the VA fought me every step of the way.numerous denials due to med reviews by them----I had to constantly knock them down-

An IMO can be costly and yet will save you this stressful type of rigamorale-if there is adequate nexus to your service- an IMO will pay for itself in comp you might never get without it.

Since VA has been ordered to obtain their own medical opinion- you will have an IMO to combat whatever that says.

By you yourself going over the med recs- you can prpare a brief cover letter for the IMO doc to highlight where specific things are noted in your SMRS and med recs.

They will read eveything-

but this too can help them prepare an IMO which confirms to the criteria they need to follow.

I have a cardiologist expert referral that I am using if I need another IMO and will give you this info if you want to consider this doctor.

His tenative fee for me was $1,750.

He based that on what evidence I have already.

Hard to determine what he would charge you-but you can get an estimate.

I used a Forensic Pathology Expert medical opinion site for the referral-there are plenty of IMO docs on th internet.

Edited March 17, 2009 by Berta

[popolop]

Thank you berta please send me that doctors' name.I meant a BVA judge and no i never got any blood work done while on active duty.It was only after i had an episode that the va did a complete study,I must say while i was in the army i did have two different EKG's that showed some changes but never were followed up on