ptsd Philadelphia Naval Hosptial

[bigred1]

Does anyone know where the records from this hospital would have been archieved? I can't find anything online.

Also, any thoughts on this: I am helping a Veteran friend with an old claim. When he came home from Vietnam, within the week, his parents took him to the Naval Hospital b/c he was having issues (He thinks this was the start of his PTSD actually but didn't realize it). He must have made a claim (he thinks it was autogenerated) for earaches, and a skin rash. We have the rating denial from his CFile. But of course there is no record of his hospital stay at the Navy hospital. It was denied back in early 1969 stating "service clinicals are negative for any treatment to the above claimed condition". And also states "left ear infection, skin condition of chest claimed by veteran no shown by the evidence of record."

Since it was within 1 year of service, wouldn't it automatically be assumed to be service connected?

Would this be CUE?

Or do we need those Navy hospital records?

He then also made a claim a few years later in 1974 when he had a break down for nervous condition. That was also denied while he was still in the hospital (he was there for 2 months). We are currently appealing this claim. We just got a SSOC denying this based on no service connection was found back in 1974. It was of course very brief, with no analysis of his 2 month hospital stay (we asked them to examine, explain and anaylze the records in our NOD).

With regard to that claim, any thoughts or advice on how to prove service connection? There is a health record in his file that he complained of nausea, which I argues in our NOD that this was evidence of symptoms of nervous condition/PTSD, but of course they didn't even address it.

We are appealing to the next level, but trying to get as much info as I can.

Thanks for any help!

[FormerMember]

The inpatient records from the Naval Hospital are in St. Louis. They keep three different files there. You generally only get the outpatient "sick call" records when you petition for them. Inpatient stays are in a completely different file and listed by hospital alphabetically. The third file is your military records. Again, when you file a request for records, you have to be anally specific as to which ones you want. The folks at the NPRC are incredibly lazy and will do the absolute least amount of labor to satisfy you. I have Vets who have sent in three different requests and get new stuff each time in spite of the fact that St. Louis insisted they've sent it all Ask them specifically to research the "inpatient" records for the Naval Hospital in question.

Lastly, I've seen Vets who had to write back to their last duty station to find their STRs. Sometimes they (Army especially) get lazy and fail to forward them. If you had a UCMJ violation that resulted in a discharge of any flavor, the records might not have been forwarded to NPRC. A minor typo on the SSN or DOB at the last base will send the records to the wrong place. I had a Vet whose records were lost that way because the typewriter wasn't printing a "1". His birthdate came out 5/2 /1954 instead of 5/21//1954. That was all it took to find the STRs.

Edited May 3, 2014 by asknod

[john999]

I asked for years for outpatient treatment records from an army shrink at my last duty station. I found out years later he refused to produce these records due to my discharge process via a plea deal for special courts martial. He told army lawyers that he could not release my treatment records because it would injure our treatment relationship. What relationship since I was being kicked out for being unsuitable after 28 months and tour in Vietnam. I have no idea what ever happened to these records. I can't get them since I bet he destroyed them, or never even made them since he was a miserable and lazy bastard. I begged that bastard for help. He barley said a word to me and took no notes. I saw him for about five months. Army psychiatry at that time was just a fast ticket to a undesirable or unsuitable discharge. I also have been unable to get records from basic training or hospital records from the hospital at Ft. Lost in the Woods where I was treated for severe lung infection.

If you file for certain chronic conditions within one year of discharge you should be able to get it SC'ed as if you were still in the service. I did that, but I don't remember doing it since I was in a VA hospital. When I filed a CUE on my original rating almost everything I brought up was considered "duty to assist" and was thrown out. If you find lost SMR's there is another way to go besides CUE.