Prior Medical Conditions

[Papa]

When one goes to their Entrance Exams, and you tell the Doctors that you have a medical issue, but they ignore it. They do not advise you to get any medical records from your private Doctor, they just laugh and send you through and pass you. Now, you are out of the military, and you file a claim for disability based upon your prior condition. Now, the VA denies you because they say that you had this prior to your military time. I always wondered how this could be since at the Entrance Exam they basically tell you that you are full of cr*p. Once, they pass you, are they not telling you that you were in 100 percent physical condition at the time you entered the military? So, how can the VA tell Veterans that were honest at the Entrance Exam that they are denied?

Papa

[Vync]

John,

I haven't started challenging the pre-existing reduction. I am going to double-check my records and pull everything together to get a full picture.

acesup,

The hip-neck deal doesn't surprise me. The same logic sounds very similar to this quote from the movie Hot Shots: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102059/quotes?qt0350387

[Papa]

I have a law firm that is working the aggravation part, but I still believe that once they pass you and accept you, they are saying that you are 100 percent mentally and physically fit. While, I did tell them about my condition, they basically called me a liar. It appears to me that the VA can not now come back and deny people when they were accept as mentally and physically fit on the entrance exam, but now says it was pre-existing. I hope I said that correctly.

Papa

[john999]

Papa

I think you are right. Once they accept you they are saying you are fit for service. If they do not note anything in the records they don't have a leg to stand on IMO. If they could get away with it they would say everyone has pre-existing condition or perdisposition for some injury or illness. If they ask if anyone in your family has ever suffered from any form of mental illness they could say you have genetic factor. They can't do it even if they try funny business.

[justrluk]

They did the same thing to me. I have it on appeal, and my VSO is confident this will be a slam-dunk. Again, we'll see what happens, but I did get a copy of my original enlistment documents, and nothing is noted about any pre-existing conditions.

[vaf]

The key to this is combing through your service medical records to find the entrance and separation physicals to see what they say. If it's not on your entrance physical, it never happened. If it's on your separation physical, it was caused during service. The presumption of soundness rule, as someone else stated here previously, is pretty clear. Of course, that doesn't mean the VA will follow it, as in the case of a veteran I worked with recently regarding a claim for deviated septum.

He entered the Army and there was no DS on the entrance physical. After a few years, he separated and there was no DS noted on the separation physical. About a year after that, he decided to enlist in the USAF. No DS noted on entrance physical, but during this enlistment, he suffered a few sports-related injuries, one of which was a DS. Since his discharge from the USAF, he's developed sleep apnea. We claimed DS as the primary cause of the sleep apnea, and of course, the VARO came back after a C & P exam claiming the DS was congenital and not caused by trauma, although there was clear evidence in his service medical records that was not the case.

We ended up appealing that based on copies of his entrance and separation physicals, so had we not had those, we wouldn't have been successful. Plus reminding the VARO that we were aware of the presumption of soundness statute. They granted service-connection but at 0%, so now we're pressing the sleep apnea as a secondary outcome for service-connection.

[Papa]

I understand the soundness and aggravation issues. However, when I went through the entrance exam, it was I that mentioned my pre-existing condition. The Doctors showed zero interest. So, how do they even know that I had a pre-existing condition? On my separation exam, it is noted, but only as a note. At the time of my separation I was having so much stomach pain, and Maalox does not cure everything, that I had to hurry and get out so that I could get some proper medical care. The only way that they know or think thery know that I have a pre-existing medical condition is that a non-medical person (me) told them I did. They did not believe me then, so how can the VA come back now and say that I had a pre-existing condition.

Papa