Letter Written To Tammy Baldwin And Russ Finegold

[JohnM]

Two week ago I wrote a letter to Tammy Baldwin, Russ Fiengold, and Herb Kohl.> Here is what I wrote.

My husband is 57 years old, a Viet Nam VEteran: Enlisted in the Marines not once but twice, Was in Viet Nam not once but twice. Up until this last yyar he has been pretty healthe, his back went out and he needed back surgery, he lost his job filed for SSD and thank God he got that right away without fighting and waiting. We just had learned about VA compensation and he has filed. His is a person who never went to a doctor for anything unless he was on his death bed. While in the service he fell off of two choppers never complained never went to doctors. He suffered over 30 years with his back. Wehn he finally had to have back surgery we found out that he has an undeveloped rib and spina bifida occulta. The military does not recognize spina bifida occulta. But this is a birth defect. Because of him not going to the doctors about his fall and that his back hurt he most likely will not be compromised for this.

I am writing for two things:

1. That the government finally consider that spina bifida occulta is a birth defect and be considered aggravated by the military. (When enlisted he was not physically fit for military ). The physicals should check for these defects also.

2. Our independent primary doctor does not no about VA compensation. Nothing in fact about Aent Orange.

Nothing in fact of what the Va excepts military related. In fact all he could say is everything is due to wear and tear.

3. The government should be sending notices to all doctors andhospitals about the VA and especially what the except about Agent Orange. So the doctors can help those Veterans that need medical documents from their doctors that they know whaat to writedown. Like DMII, Peropheral Neuropathy, Catracts, Hearing Loss, These are Just a few , There are many more.

Thank You

JohnM' Wife

On Aug 12 I recieved a letter From Tammy Baldwin That she had faxed my letter to the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, She also stated that she would be happy to contact the VA regiona Office and aletr the ageny on her interes in John's claim. This morning we sent her a thank you letter for her fast responds and at this time would pass on her getting involved at this time, we wanted to see what would happen. Today we recieved a letter from Tammy Baldwin and Russ Fiengold Both of them had said " Mrs JohnM We got the VA's Attetion. Pleae return the Privacy form if you want us to check on your husbands claim.

This is a fast responds : If we have them check on his claim does anyone know if that will hurt him or help him. Or should we just sit on it.

[LarryJ]

Hell no, don't "sit on it", otherwise you'll still be "sitting on it"!

Let whomever you can get, get to work on your problem.

Fill out the Privacy Forms.

Find a good Service Organization to help you, if you haven't already ( I, personally, like the VVA, and, when the Eagle Flys for me, I will remember them and the help they have given me. ).

And, may God Bless.

P.S. Continue rasinin hell.

[LarryJ]

BTW, that's coming from someone who is a member of the JWV.

[Berta]

If you sign it (I mean the veteran has to sign it -it is his claim)

your Congressman or Senators will send the VARO a letter requesting info-as to your complaint-

Then the VARO liason to Congressional Inqueries will respond with a letter that will put the VA in the best light possible.

In my case the RO even lied to my state Congressional representatives and I told what happened at hadit-

this was a decade ago-

Now my RO has a letter from a Senator that they dont know how to answer at all-

I was quite specific as to the regs they broke etc.

These inqueries can add months to a claim-the claim is stalled by the congressional inquery and the time it takes for a VA Cong liason person to make up something good for the reply.

Correct me if I am wrong- didnt I ask if your husband had DMII some time back-and if so-

this would be the way you should approach them-

on the DMII -as well as the spinal occulta but maybe I am mixed up here-

but if you replied that he had DMII- I already posted the best advice I could give you on that-

and that is by far easier to SC than the spinal problem.

Forgive me if I have your claim mixed up with someone else.

[Berta]

Yeah- early August-you can search for my post-

With his DD 214 as proof of service in Vietnam ,his diabetes is presumptive-

as well as secondary conditions-

This should be the strongest part of his claim-not the spinal occulta-

keep that in the claim too but-

AO DMII SC is presumptive in Vietnam vets -in -country and as of last Wednesday maybe Out of country too-

The VA docs dont have a clue on AO -I agree -some do but most dont- they dont need to -they do not grant AO claims-

As I said in the prior posts-if he is a Vietnam Vet, overseas service in Nam on his DD214-his diabetes and all secondary conditions- is presumptive-

All that claims needs is a current diagnosis of DMII etc and his DD 214 ----and no other known etiology-

yet he could get around that too-if the VA tried to state that.

Edited August 22, 2006 by Berta

[Vike17]

JohnM,

Berta is certainly correct with her advice. Also if i remember correcly, I stated in a earlier post about how to get your husbands lower back service-connected. You'll need an IMO from a physician in which they state that his military service, more specifically his accident falling off the helicopters, more than likely aggravated his pre-existing spinal condition, and that his degenerative changes to his spine are far more advanced that what would be expected for the normal progression of his spinal occulta. The doctor would need to substiate this with an MRI showing a really old injury to the back. Any decent radiologist can tell if a injury is an older one or not, and alot of them can make an estimate of how old the injury is also.

In your letter you stated'

"That the government finally consider that spina bifida occulta is a birth defect and be considered aggravated by the military. (When enlisted he was not physically fit for military ). The physicals should check for these defects also"

The American medical community does recognize this as a birth deffect, the actual Goverment doesn't have anything to do with this. As far as being aggravated by the military, only a doctor can make this assesment, and this also doesn't have anything to do with the Government. Normally, the physicals a potential enlistee takes at the MEPs prior to enlisting does check for these conditions. However, as we all know alot of these exams are by far inadiquate, as they just rush you through most of the time. Actually this can be to the advantage of the veteran, as the exams woudn't show the pre-existing level of disability prior to service. Thus, prompting the VA to rate the claim as if the veteran had a level of disability prior to service at 0%.

"Our independent primary doctor does not no about VA compensation. Nothing in fact about Aent Orange.

Nothing in fact of what the Va excepts military related. In fact all he could say is everything is due to wear and tear"

Maybe it's time for your to seek another doctor that has some knowledge of the VA examination criteria, or at least enlighten your current doctor about the VA's criteria by giving him a copy of the exam protocols set forth by VA. If you doctor stated that his back condition is just due to "wear and tear," maybe that is the case and there isn't a basis for a claim. i don't know?

I hope this helps!

Vike 17

[JohnM]

Thanks for your comments: We sent the letter in because our VA Rep suggested we should. If it gets some attention I feel no harm done.

As far as Spina Bifida, in my research there are a lot of Vets complaining about back problems and in later in life when it is time for surgery that's when they find out that they have spina bifida occulta, and when they appeal about their backs they all have been denied ( except two people ). So basically John will be denied also. It is time that they start considering this as a birth defect. If it was just Spina Bifida ( Children born to a Viet Nam Vet they do , but not occulta).

We are not sure weather to sign the form, we will be asking our VA Rep on that.

Yes John has DMII, Peripheral Neuropathy, hearing loss, tinninus, Vertigo ( being tested Friday for Menieers,MRI ) This is SC on record, Catracts, Upper Respitory ( on record while in Viet Nam ) . He takes Zoloft for depression, but has not been diagnoissed for PTDS ( Only by our primary DR. for depression)

Unforntunatly his back is not on record and that will be hard to prove.

As far as the DR.'s go we have not gone to the VA DR.'s as of yet, his problems just came up in the last year. We have a good DR. but he knows nothing about the VA, just that they have helped a few of his patients.

As far as his back we have letters from our primary and spine Dr.'s but they said that they can not say when it started or if it would be SC, The pain clinic Dr. said it has been a problem for a long time. His fall off of the choppers he did not complain about it,

Right now our VA Rep is working on DMII, Neuropathy and hearing loss, PTDS, we did not put down about Respitory because we did not know at the time that VA covers it, So when we get a rating on the above, she said we will start on the next. ( one at a time).

So for now it is a waiting game.