Sc Denial For Lumbar Injury

[Scott D]

Here is the quote from the Statement of the Case issued recently.

"Service medical records show that you were treated on Nov of 2004 for complaints of thoracic and upper lumbar discomfort which was diagnosed by a chiropator as chronic lumbar thoracic strain."

"The evidence does not show that you had a chronic thoracolumbar condition while in service, despite the term of "chronic" on the treatment note".

Does an of this make sense or am I just not getting it? I was seperated under honorable condition in april of 2005, all of the Chiropratic treatments 6 in total, were clearly in service. I was even waived from perfoming in a physical fitness test due to re injuring my back.

How should I approach this fight?

[carlie]

Hope this helps someone.

carlie

§ 3.309 Disease subject to presumptive service connection.

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(a) Chronic diseases. The following diseases shall be granted service connection although not otherwise established as incurred in or aggravated by service if manifested to a compensable degree within the applicable time limits under §3.307 following service in a period of war or following peacetime service on or after January 1, 1947, provided the rebuttable presumption provisions of §3.307 are also satisfied.

Anemia, primary.

Arteriosclerosis.

Arthritis.

Atrophy, progressive muscular.

Brain hemorrhage.

Brain thrombosis.

Bronchiectasis.

Calculi of the kidney, bladder, or gallbladder.

Cardiovascular-renal disease, including hypertension. (This term applies to combination involvement of the type of arteriosclerosis, nephritis, and organic heart disease, and since hypertension is an early symptom long preceding the development of those diseases in their more obvious forms, a disabling hypertension within the 1-year period will be given the same benefit of service connection as any of the chronic diseases listed.)

Cirrhosis of the liver.

Coccidioidomycosis.

Diabetes mellitus.

Encephalitis lethargica residuals.

Endocarditis. (This term covers all forms of valvular heart disease.)

Endocrinopathies.

Epilepsies.

Hansen's disease.

Hodgkin's disease.

Leukemia.

Lupus erythematosus, systemic.

Myasthenia gravis.

Myelitis.

Myocarditis.

Nephritis.

Other organic diseases of the nervous system.

Osteitis deformans (Paget's disease).

Osteomalacia.

Palsy, bulbar.

Paralysis agitans.

Psychoses.

Purpura idiopathic, hemorrhagic.

Raynaud's disease.

Sarcoidosis.

Scleroderma.

Sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral.

Sclerosis, multiple.

Syringomyelia.

Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease).

Tuberculosis, active.

Tumors, malignant, or of the brain or spinal cord or peripheral nerves.

Ulcers, peptic (gastric or duodenal) (A proper diagnosis of gastric or duodenal ulcer (peptic ulcer) is to be considered established if it represents a medically sound interpretation of sufficient clinical findings warranting such diagnosis and provides an adequate basis for a differential diagnosis from other conditions with like symptomatology; in short, where the preponderance of evidence indicates gastric or duodenal ulcer (peptic ulcer). Whenever possible, of course, laboratory findings should be used in corroboration of the clinical data.

[Hoppy]

Scott,

The actual wording the doctor can use is that the condition is more likely than not a chronic condition that was the result of military service. I actually got a report saying that the condition was "definately" the result of military service.

carlie,

The instruction that I once saw was for conditions not on the presumptive list. The rating protocol for diseases not on the lsit is that the condition needs to be shown as chronic in service. If so any subsequent manisfestation no matter how remotely connected is service is service connected. The evidence of an intercurrent injury that would disqualify service connection must be clear and convincing. In the next couple weeks I am going to go through all my old notes and get re-organized. I have all of these CFR'S on a lsit somewhere on my computer. They are the ones I used in the course of my claim several years ago.

If the condition was not shown to be chronic in service then continuity of post service treatment can qualify the condition for service connection. This is a protocol I read many times in BVA cases. I argued that continuity of symptoms is a decision that can only be made by a doctor. In my case the disease is considered to be perminent and there is no known cure. I had a doctor write it up and got service connected.