Located An Old Ekg ......

[VetsLady]

Several years ago my husband went to the VAMC received an examination to be included on the "Agent Orange Registry" - he had already been denied sc and an appeal had been filed.

I located the report and EKG that was done that day by stopping at the local VAMC FOIA room and lo and behold, there is an EKG from that day indicating up on the top bar "Cannot rule out Inferior Infarct, age undetermined" and abnormal ECG

I remember seeing this EKG before, long ago and pulled my copy out and this language was not on top.

Whenever we asked his docs at the VA how his heart is doing, they all said "okay, within normal limits"

The emergency room he was taken to early last year did an EKG and told us about the "inferior infarction" - age undetermined

Took the report to his VA doc and she did another .... this was 4 days after the ER visit. The report indicated that compared to the EKG done at the VAMC 2 years prior, "The QT has lengthened" nothing else was indicated

I think about what you went through Berta and immediately made an appt for my husband with his private cardiologist and we're dropping these four EKG's off at their office today so she can review them.

Interestingly, I just found another piece of evidence ...... he saw the private cardiologist in May '04 on a referral for chest pain. Findings were a right bundle branch blockage. The Agent Orange Registry EKG was done in Sept. '04. Seems logical to me the silent heart attack occurred somewhere between those two dates.

AO examiner also ordered a chest X-ray and there was left ventricular hypertrophy found to be present.

I'd be most interested to hear any comments or ? that anyone may offer.

Edited January 12, 2012 by VetsLady

[rdawg]

hold thier feet to the fire second. get the correct medical help first. get second and third opinions.

[jbasser]

If you an afford it, get private treatment for the heart or anything serious or life threatning.

Hang in there and yes you may have a valid arguement about the older records.

J

[VetsLady]

The appt with his private cardiologist is already made.

First and foremost is getting quality medical care. Lucky for us, he does have decent medical coverage through a MeAdvantage/Medicare plan.

His VA doc is very nice and thorough but she is a GP, not a cardiologist.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Berta]

“I think about what you went through Berta and immediately made an appt for my husband with his private cardiologist and we're dropping these four EKG's off at their office today so she can review them. “

GOOD!

We had no idea that my husband had a heart condition.Otherwise we would have been out of the VA system right away.We didnt even know that he could have obtained his medical records.A nurse screamed at him for looking into his medical record file one day while we waited for a VA clinic visit.Like dopes we asssumed he had no right to see those records.

This is the form his private cardio doctor should use to support his AO IHD claim.

http://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-21-0960A-1-ARE.pdf

[VetsLady]

Thank you Berta.

[Harv]

VetsLady,

I had an ecocardiogram and nuclear stress test that showed a

inferior infarction, age undetermined. Even though my private Cardiologist

apparently filed the form that Berta referred to in a negative manner,

partly because he refused to read it 2 times I showed it to him. I do

have a pacemaker, but with my private family Dr's diagnosis of

CAD and the C & P Dr. referring to the tests my Cardiologist ran,

I received a 60% rating. BTW, my private Cardiologist never said a

word about the results of the tests other than condition was still

unchanged and believed he was referring to a 20% blockage. He

hever told me about the inferior infarction. BTW, I am getting a new

private Cardiologist.

Since he filed a claim earlier, assuming he mentioned his heart

condtion when denied, this should fall under Nehmer with an earlier

EED date. Others, more knowledgeable, will chime in if this isn't correct.

I am assuming he is a Nam vet. And first & foremost, get him the required

medical help with a Cardiologist.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Harv