Should I Expect A Denial Letter At Some Point?

[disasta]

Happy Almost 4th Everyone. I have read the boards for a while during my process of my claim and appeals.

Let me explain my situation.

During my time in basic training(2002) we received a pnemonia vacine and since then I have had multiple bouts of pnemonia and bronchitis. I have a small restriction in my lungs from the scaring which I have a rating of 30% for asthma. In December of 2005 I had a particularly bad occurance of pnemonia in which I basically put a hole in my lung. The lung healed and since then I have had serious reflux which the VA is planning surgery(nissen fundoplication) to fix the damage the reflux has done to my esophagus and some additional damage to the lungs. A medium sized hiatal hernia appeared after the incident with the lung. I can only guess the hiatal hernia came from the severe coughing when I had pnemonia which is how the lung got the hole. It took the VA quite a while to figure out why I could not breath and had really bad reflux(by really bad I mean I am maxed out on the medication and I still get an upset stomach and throw up and again will be having surgery in the next few months). My claim was put in when I was discharged in Feb of 06 and denied Feb 07, the appeal was put in and i was granted the 30% in May of 07 for asthma. In June of 07 the GI doctor figured out that the reflux was part of the major problem. The Dr's theory being lungs got tore up during pnemonia/bronchitis but worse with the hole which healed itself. After the award for the asthma my VSO from DAV said I needed to file a new claim for the reflux. I dont know how it was put in but when I got my denial letter it was listed as being filed secondary to the asthma with the argument that asthma does not cause acid reflux. I obviously understand that as being true but do not know how it should go. June of 08 is when I received the denial for the reflux and immediately put in a NOD. I didnt hear anything so in January of 09 and May of 09 I contacted the DAV to see what was going on. They gave me a bunch of evasive answers and was basically told to wait. I sent an IRIS message at the end of June and I received this message:

This is in response to your inquiry dated June 26, 2009, regarding the status of your appeal seeking service connection for hiatal hernia.

Our records indicate that we received your Form 9 on May 4, 2009. You will be receiving information regarding if you want a Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) hearing or have the appeal go to the Appeals Management Center.

Now I did not send any forms but from googling and pulling up the Form 9 and it saying "appeal to BVA" should I expect that I will be receiving a denial letter for the claim? I cant get ahold of my DAV rep until atleast monday so I am just curious. Any advise of help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[jbasser]

Berta and Pete are exactly right. Get the IMO but use the format Berta suggested.

When getting the IMO, it is imparative that the Doc relates a history and a trail of your conditions to present date.

The VA should listen to this. This is one of the necessity items when it comes to building a claim.

Even conditions secondary to the original condition still must be medically linked to a service connected condition.

J

[disasta]

ok

so i spoke to dav today and the va did deny my claim. what i did not know was they decided not to change my address when i moved. every other part of va had the right address but they mailed the denial to the old address in february. apparently i had 60 days to appeal and when i called in may the dav filed the form 9 to keep my case open. guess i will be getting a couple medical opinions as the case eventually ends up going to washington. if its highly documented in my records for 3 years and i have the medical opinions in the case should i request a hearing with an officer or just have them review it in dc? The DAV said the timeframe for a hearing with an officer would be over 2 years... any ideas? thanks.

[Pete53]

Send the VA a certified letter requesting that they use the corrected address on all correspondence.

[john999]

Why don't you try going for a DRO Hearing instead of the BVA. You can win at the VARO just as easy as the BVA if you have the evidence. If you have a good IMO you can win anywhere. DRO hearings usually have taken me about a year. The BVA takes 2-3 years and you probably get a remand.

[disasta]

Well this is the part of the process I am now confused about. The claim was filed, then denied, then I filed an appeal to have them relook it which was also denied. The VARO sent the denial letter to an old address so when I called my rep he filed a form 9 to keep the appeal alive. Can I still have a DRO Hearing at the VARO before it goes to BVA? I think im going to go up and see my rep at the DAV so I can get more clarity.