Wow, Another Va Error: Please Help

[masters101]

:D Wow, I continue to be amazed by the VA. My wife was released from the USAF on a medical disability. She recently received a rating that stated, "VA examination was conducted and results show an increased severity of your lumbar spine condition that would warrant an evaluation of 40 percent disabling. However VA examiner reported that the the test results were unreliable. Wpon Waddell's testing, the results revealed regional wakness or sensory changes which deviate from accepted neuroanatomy. We requested VA examiner to clarify the fndings and examiner responded that the range of motion findings are not reliable and that further examinations are not expected to briing forth a different outcome."

So she was given a rating of zero percent, she is on heavy medication and can barely walk.

Please help what do we do?

[Commander Bob]

You file a Notice of Disagreement and you obtain an Independent Medical Opinion (or an Independent Medical Exam) depending upon how much testing results you have available to you. You must first obtain ALL of her Service Medical Treatment files, all of her VA treatment files, and all of her C&P (compensation and pension) medical exams.

Ditto, LarryJ...File that NOD...

[masters101]

We did not have to file a NOD, we contacted the VA via IRIS and the set up a new C&P for my wife. She had her make up C&P evaluation and all they did was a range of motion on her back. The entire C&P took 7 minutes. I guess we wait for a hopefully good outcome.

[Commander Bob]

We did not have to file a NOD, we contacted the VA via IRIS and the set up a new C&P for my wife. She had her make up C&P evaluation and all they did was a range of motion on her back. The entire C&P took 7 minutes. I guess we wait for a hopefully good outcome.

IRIS or not, new C&P exam or not.... If you received an award letter or denial letter, and you disagree with the outcome, you have one year to file a "Notice of Disagreement"... NOD

[masters101]

Thank you for everyones help. My wife went back for her C&P part two and simply did a range of motion test. The exam took 5 minutes. Carlie I tried the link you sent and nothing was there.

[Thad]

My 2 cents is to be aware that, despite getting another set of ROM #'s done, the VA rating decision may use the Waddell scores to say that the disability and the ROM #'s are unreliable.

Google "Waddell tests" and you see that the tests are used to indicate that the patient's verbal replies or behaviors don't correlate with what the testers "expect" from the patient's physical/nervous situation. In other words, that the patient may be faking or that the pain may be psychological. Now that's not what Waddell said the tests were supposed to be used for, but that's what workers comp and so on are sometimes using them for.

One thought from this forum that really helped me was to look at the VA's denial reason(s), and make sure that you produced documentation that covered that SPECIFIC point -- here, whether the vet could be faking or exaggerating their symptoms. If possible, you might consider getting a retest of the Waddell signs from a private doctor (where more or all are negative), or submitting an explanation as to why the positive signs are reasonable IN THIS SITUATION.

I'm finding it hard enough to walk my own ROM-based spine stuff thru, without the complications of positive Waddell signs.

I don't have decades of VA experience, but JMHO, and hoping the vet gets what they really deserve, despite the difficulty of doing it thru the VA!

[masters101]

Great advice, we are so thankful to have found hadit. We have just begun to fight, with the help of hadit we will win. My wife has several Doctors reports stating she has degenerative disk syndrome, spondylosis. Hopefully with these prognosis and her limited range of motion she might get rated over her zero percent. I feel her treatment and rating is criminal. She has to wear braces on her legs to simply walk and she can not bend over to tie her shoe.