Thursday my Brother Mike will have his funeral in El Paso. The Church seats 185 people and they are expecting an overflow crowd. Everyone who knew Mike liked him as he was a standup guy. He always was there to help. He was a great Dad, Now his wife can;t stand to live in their home cause although she has great memories and they had a beautiful home its not the same with out him. She plans to move to Austin Texas and live with her parents now.
On December 25th Mike in despair took his own life. Why did he do it? No one can be sure but most of his family believe it was because of his pain and the incompetent bastards who run the VA Medical in El Paso. Mike had good insurance but trusted the VA cause he had been service connected for two conditions at 10% each and after talking to Dr Craig Bash and some contacts I have we knew he would get 100% TDIU when he could no longer work. Mike went from and large active man to someone who needed help to get out of his bed. When he went anywhere it hurt. On Decemebr 22nd he was forced to retire from his job
He took Medicine to help his condition and was give anti biotics that were not appropriate for him by VA. A couple of weeks ago he was taken by ambulance to get morphine and waited in an ambulance for 11 hours and than was sent home and dumped onto his bed. He had a catheter and his wife did not know how to help him.
I cannot tell you how angry I am at this point. Mike had good insurance and I had been begging him to use it instead of the VA.I plan to dedicate the rest of my life to see that the VA does not get away with this again.
Veterans deserve real choice for their health care.
Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL
This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:
Current Diagnosis. (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)
In-Service Event or Aggravation.
Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”
VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.
They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.
This is not true,
Proof:
About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because when they cant work, they can not keep their home. I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason: "Its been too long since military service". This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA. And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time, mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends.
Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly. The VA is broken.
A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals. I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision. All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did.
I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt". Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day? Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.
However, (and I have no idea of knowing whether or not you would likely succeed) Im unsure of why you seem to be so adamant against getting an increase in disability compensation.
When I buy stuff, say at Kroger, or pay bills, I have never had anyone say, "Wait! Is this money from disability compensation, or did you earn it working at a regular job?" Not once. Thus, if you did get an increase, likely you would have no trouble paying this with the increase compensation.
However, there are many false rumors out there that suggest if you apply for an increase, the VA will reduce your benefits instead.
That rumor is false but I do hear people tell Veterans that a lot. There are strict rules VA has to reduce you and, NOT ONE of those rules have anything to do with applying for an increase.
Yes, the VA can reduce your benefits, but generally only when your condition has "actually improved" under ordinary conditions of life.
Unless you contacted the VA within 72 hours of your medical treatment, you may not be eligible for reimbursement, or at least that is how I read the link, I posted above. Here are SOME of the rules the VA must comply with in order to reduce your compensation benefits:
NOTE: TO PROVE CAUSE OF DEATH WILL LIKELY REQUIRE AN AUTOPSY. This means if you die of a SC condtion, your spouse would need to do an autopsy to prove cause of death to be from a SC condtiond. If you were P and T for 10 full years, then the cause of death may not matter so much.
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Pete53
Thursday my Brother Mike will have his funeral in El Paso. The Church seats 185 people and they are expecting an overflow crowd. Everyone who knew Mike liked him as he was a standup guy. He always was there to help. He was a great Dad, Now his wife can;t stand to live in their home cause although she has great memories and they had a beautiful home its not the same with out him. She plans to move to Austin Texas and live with her parents now.
On December 25th Mike in despair took his own life. Why did he do it? No one can be sure but most of his family believe it was because of his pain and the incompetent bastards who run the VA Medical in El Paso. Mike had good insurance but trusted the VA cause he had been service connected for two conditions at 10% each and after talking to Dr Craig Bash and some contacts I have we knew he would get 100% TDIU when he could no longer work. Mike went from and large active man to someone who needed help to get out of his bed. When he went anywhere it hurt. On Decemebr 22nd he was forced to retire from his job
He took Medicine to help his condition and was give anti biotics that were not appropriate for him by VA. A couple of weeks ago he was taken by ambulance to get morphine and waited in an ambulance for 11 hours and than was sent home and dumped onto his bed. He had a catheter and his wife did not know how to help him.
I cannot tell you how angry I am at this point. Mike had good insurance and I had been begging him to use it instead of the VA.I plan to dedicate the rest of my life to see that the VA does not get away with this again.
Veterans deserve real choice for their health care.
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