ptsd At War Again

[Guest Berta]

The DRO just sent me a 32 page SOC- to deny my claims!

HE only mentioned two of them -there were 6-

There are NO REASONS or BASES at all-

just pages of all the regs and persumptives!

Check this- they said under Evidence I had wriitten them letters-

I had sent them letters referring to specific medical evidence-right-

I sent them plenty of medical evidence from the med recs.

this is how I won my Sec 1151 and my lawsuit! Letters explaining the evidence I had enclosed with the letters-

AND CHECK this out- NOT ANY acknowlegement of Dr. BAsh's IMO or Dr. Rabiees IMO!!!!! whatsoever as evidence- there is no Reason or Basis so it isnt there either-

I was told by VARO they got this IMO in Nov 2004.

Then I emailed me vet rep to make sure they didnt lose it yet-a few months ago- and he did chech the c file as far as I know as it all left the DRO and went back in a day or two later-

If my vet rep didnt put it in back in the C file- I will see Monday if I can sue him-

Can you believe it- I am livid because I had an awful feeling something would go wrong- it did for many years in the past-they refused to even look at evidence and then if it was real good, they would lose it (but it all appeared in my c file)

I emailed the State of NY DVA and asked them point blank where is my IMO-

how could my vet rep in Buffalo VARO allow this to happen,with the email I had sent him-and even the local vet rep knew I had a good IMO.

Oh well- I sued the DAV but went into the wrong court-

If I need to sue NYSDVA or this SO by Monday I will know what is the right court -

That $2,000 IMO must be somewhere-

I have the VAROs email addy and guess the director is going to get a piece of my mind too!

I swear that billboard across from the VARO with my name on it has to come down

It is actually almost hilarious to see a decision based on NO facts at all-

Nothing- they gave NO reasons and No Bases for the denial!!!

This is absolutely ridiculous.

BUT the good part is- I am sending a copy of the whole damn thing to the Commission as well as the IMO they lost - now the commission can see what crap we claimants have to put up with-

I knew they could have argued that I am not a doctor -like they did before - on this- that is why I got the IMO-

but I sued them and won Sec 1151 without a doctor-and also the lawsuit.

yet this is, as I recall, the sameo sameo crapola they put me and the veteran through for many years.

I am really not worried about succeeding on my claims-but the VA PTSD sure came back-

I think not only the DRO messed up but

that SO messed up too-he has a boss- it is Gov. Pataki.

I will get this straightened out . Good thing I go to a war college-

these people need some civilian command presense to start kicking their asses.

Berta

[Magoo_Mr.]

Berta:

If there is ANYONE who can win a prolonged ... "ground war" ... with the VA .. it will be you.

Magoo B) ... aka Bill

[Guest jstacy]

Berta, take a deep breath. Hang in there. I have also learned my lesson about the DVA. I have an acroynym for the dva but I cant spell it out on this site. I would not let them file anything else for me. I cant understand how the RO undermined DR BAsh and called him a Radiologist. He may want to see that one.

Keep the faith. You are going to Win. The Ro is afraid to rate the claim and My guess is he wants you to appeal to the BVA. Anyhow hang in there. We are all pulling for you.

[JR Reihs]

Berta

There is no doubt that you will win your claim, they have again unleashed their worst fear......A fighter with the knowledge to kick ass , take names, and the will to repeat if nessesary.

Several years ago I filed a claim for a seconday condition the DAV said I would lose, i would not take no for an answer, so the VA sent me to C&P, afterward claim denied , I appealed as no c-file reveiw, again I was sent back and claim denied, I appealed based on C&P did not mention a IMO, again for the 3rd time I was sent back, this time I had another IMO from a specialist , and I let the C&P go on until the end when he told me that was all , I pulled out the 2nd IMO and told him I wanted this to now become a part of my C-file for his reveiw.

I wish I would have had a camera , he facial expresion said all I needed to know, I thought he was going to start sucking on his thumb after he read the report, then I pointed out the first IMO and he stated he did not see it in my file, so I looked in the file , 5 seconds later it was in front of him.

Claim approved after 2 denials from the same examiner, and to beat that the SO met with me and told me with a sraight face " I cant believe you won that claim"

I just told him to piss off because if I would have listened to him I would have lost.

I always tell Vet's who are going for a C&P , to get an IMO and hold it until the examiner is done , then give it to them to make it part of the C-file and have the C-file clerk stamp it. So far we are 6 for 6 on this,it keeps the RO out of it until it is to late for them to screw with your exam. B)

Edited September 17, 2005 by JR Reihs

[Pete53]

MT Skull beat the VA after 22 years and got 100% his wife and he used to post here a lot. Some will remember her as Kimmie or Kim. There have been others. Many move on after they win. Sometimes they pop in for a post or two.

We also have a pretty good core of Veterans who have won and continue to try and help.And Berta has hung in with us.

[Guest Berta]

Thank you all and Peter you must remember the days of Prodigy when Rod was struggling with them too-

he won and I won all of our VA claims so far.

I stayed up all night to work on my new war plan- someone up at my vet rets office in the VARO appears to really have screwed up.I have email from the boss there telling me what they can and will do for their claimants-nice list-they haven't done didly sqwat yet-

I have been through this so many times before and then I won- so that will come to pass- when you have the medical evidence you do have the Power-

The new DRO copied everything from the March 2004 decision -verbatim -it appears to be-

She never mentioned the additional claims and my accrued under Bonny V Principi-

in March they said this would get an "administrative decision"

she copies that and states the same thing-

it IS the veterans '"Administration" and she is a '"decision" review officer

so that part is kind of funny.

PS I though they lost or misplaced the IMOS- something in her decision indicates they do have them,right in the c file, she just didnt want to read them.

These are 6 meticulous claims all supported by evidence that is excellent-she called my evidence "letters with and without attachments"

Wait a minute-under Evidence it says Report of Contact dated May 5th 2004 and April 7, 2005 ???????

That has no significance to me-

If she tried to contact me I would have known it.

I had been told to expect DRO review in early April.I stayed by the phone and the PC-no contact was ever made with me.

Something really stinks here.

Even the SMC decision goes completely against the General Counsel pres op I sent them. I see lots of the evidence is missing.

It will be interesting to see how -VA and the Div of Vets Affairs-they react to my emails- wish the VARO was in the town where the local VAMC is -I could camp out in the VA cemetery and wait for Monday morning!

Dont get discouraged - I will prevail and you all will too-

someone asked- it was Susan E. Kloc from the Buffalo VARO who wrote this decision.

[mssoup1]

My vet rep at the VARO in April or May-checked the file-to make sure the IMOs were there-there were two-

I didnt hear back from him and felt there was no need for reply if the IMOS were there-he did get the email-

The c file left the DRO shelf for a day or two and then returned so it seemed he had checked it.

But I wonder if he lost it-but  one of the  800 vet reps checked the file again some time ago for me and said that IMO from Dr. Bash was right on top of the file on the DRO's desk.

That DRO went on vacation and then when he came back he retired- they then gave me the new DRO.

The said they had a response from me on Aug 3rd but it wasnt me so the 800 guy said it must have been a statement from my POA-who knew the IMO should have been there-

I have no reason to believe that I wont succeed-and will get another IMO if needed (it is a laugh that I sued them without an IMO but then again the doctors and lawyers at VACO and the OGC read everything I sent them and all of the medical evidence-)It was easier to win that than  a regular claim.

I think maybe my vet rep up there messed up-

I had also prepared a summary for my local vet rep to give him as he had to go to Buffalo VARO for some training specifically mentioning these IMOs-a few months back- the one from the VA doctor is a beauty too.

The IMOs were clearly mentioned in the summary as well as the medical evidence they had in the c file.

I think that local vet rep messed up too and didnt give it to him-

I will find out Monday what really happened-

I can easily send the IMOs off again- that isnt the point-

somebody has to do something about this crap-

Dr. Bash's IMO clearly stated his expertise in reading MRis and X rays- it was a very strong IMO as to diabetes. I had sent him a brief email- he immediately emailed me bad and called me and within a week after he received the stack of records he sent me the IMO.

There was no question that Rod's diabetes had been undiagnosed and that it contributed to his death-

The VA's doc's statement was short but extremely provocative-

I think I only needed that VA docs statement but the IMO from Bash was excellent. I felt that in this case the VA would not have accepted a former VA doctor's opinion. Because it supported the claim.

The committee on Veterans Disability is looking into all aspects of VA claims[- not just trying to find wannabees.

I wrote to them some time ago about how many of us cannot get adequate SOs or vet reps and then have to deal with incompetent VARos that ignore or lose the most probative evidence.

I am sending them another letter and a  copy of my SOC here -it shows them exactly what I meant.

I am really pissed but it gives me a chance to really do some more griping to a commission that appears to be intent on making the whole system better- at least that is what I think they are spending tax payers money on - I read their stuff. The Commission is independent of the VA -that is something we never had before.

If this generates oversight over the VARO employees  who control us, they will be helping all veterans with claims.

This points out too that our SOS and vet reps have responsibilities that come with the POA. Sorry for griping -

The VA gave me the 60 days to respond to the SOC -I am giving them until Tuesday to find those IMOS.

This is about the fourth or fifth time at least I have had to send email to this VARO entitled What the Hell is this!

I Always get a response and a result. I start school again Monday officially-and of course this mail came late on a Friday-I sure didnt need this news today but

my past VA experience has given me enough strength I know I will-as I did many times in the past - PREVAIL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Berta,

It appears that you can send the VARO anything you want and they either read it or not, acknowledge it or not, or read into it what ever they want to. I had letters from IMO's. The VARO's response was "so, where did the doctor get his opinion from?" Took this back to our IMO and he was totally in awe. Could not believe they would dispute his opinion. Finally got an instant approval through the BVA on this one.

Sent in letters from the Vet Center. They never acknowledged they even received this evidence. So, I sent it again, along with another recent letter, and reminded them that this was evidence that they never showed they received.

Filed a couple of claims for secondary issues to my husbands already service connected conditions. Received a letter back wanting me to send in any evidence that showed these claims were directly related to his military service. Do they not read. Again, I send another letter back telling them that these claims were not for direct service connected issues, but were for secondary issues to already service connected conditions.

I think what is happening here is that they send you what ever they want in a letter just to show that the claim is being worked. This gives them more time. After 5+ years of some of these claims, remands from the BVA that date back to January and we receive a letter from the VARO yesterday telling us that they are sorry for the delay of his case. I think the only thing that prompted this was our visit to the VARO and the representative entered a couple of statements into his record concerning the secondary issues letter we had previously received.

It's bad enough that you have to wait on a decision, but to continously receive frivilous letters from them that you then have to respond back to his so very frustrating in itself.

With claims this old, I don't think they venture too far back into the veterans file anyway to really look at what the initial claim was actually about and the evidence that was submitted. Therefore, each time you respond back, it seems that you are starting all over again by rehashing the content of your claim all over again. No wonder so many veterans get upset and throw in the towel.

Just my opinions,

Bev.