11 Years And 3 Days Later, Varo Still Punishing Us!

[TiredVeteran]

Long time, no post. Sorry and hello to all :)

Jimmy won his medical malpractice case at the BVA level. We thought it was finally over. Nope.

Nashville VARO seems to have a habit of punishing those who speak out about malpractice and only gave him

ONE year retro. So, he is still owed pay from 2003 to 2011. The VA maimed his cervical spinal cord in 2003;

Since then, thankfully he has fought successfully Agent Orange Cancer and a host of other serious illnesses, and is the same awesome hubby. We have much to be thankful for.

I wish the FBI would arrest the people who deliberately cover up wrongdoing and haul them off in handcuffs.

That is about as likely as VARO not being adversarial to veterans.

Hugs and thanks to all of you!!!!!!!!!!

PS: not sure what the e 3 seaman is?

Edited June 12, 2014 by TiredVeteran

[Berta]

Is the PVA still representing you?

From what I see here the Nashville RO violated the remand.

Have you contacted the BVA yet?

That happened to me a few years ago and I got right on them, and sent a lay medical statement and more evidence to the BVA.

I even ordered my fourth IMO but the BVA awarded before it was even prepared.

That was one of the cases I had ,whereby they ( Buffalo RO) thought they would get out of paying me the proper retro.

We need to know what happened (in documentation from your husband's VARO ) after the BVA made the award.

Can you post their last decision as to what appears to me to be the wrong EED?

Does your husband have 100% or more for other SC disabilities?

Or was this 1151 award his only award from the VA?

[TiredVeteran]

I don't have a scanner. Just an old computer.

VARO first said he would get nothing, as yes he already was 100 percent.

But the R rating made it much more per month.

PVA still is his rep. They say they check every 90 days to see if the claim is decided. PVA said that the only claims that were treated like Jimmy's, taking 11 years, were the claims where the VA was at fault, medical malpractice. PVA says they do not expect a favorable outcome on this VARO appeal and it will have to go to BVA before he gets his money. It has already been in reconsideration for well over a year at VARO. VARO does not like people speaking out about malpractice and punishes the veterans. Grrrrrrrr.

Can BVA help at this point? I don't know.

The person who told me to contact the hotline was an attorney for the government. I had called to ask him where they stored all the lies that VAMC wrote. He was really nice and very sad about what Jimmy has been through.

VARO basically said it would not pay back pay due to not enough evidence. There is more than ample evidence. Except for the lies from the VAMC, who tried to cover up what they did.

Next week, I am going to make hard copies of the important issues and starting mailing out letters.

[TiredVeteran]

Berta,

What would I say or send to the BVA to maybe get help?

[Berta]

No need to contact the BVA. You gave us more info.

"PVA says they do not expect a favorable outcome on this VARO appeal and it will have to go to BVA before he gets his money. It has already been in reconsideration for well over a year at VARO."

Ok, you clarified this a lot.

A reconsideration Request does NOT stop the NOD clock.

So I assume you did file a NOD within the year NOD deadline.

You can obtain an attorney at that point, as John suggested, unless you feel the PVA is helping you enough.

This also clarified something:

"VARO basically said it would not pay back pay due to not enough evidence. There is more than ample evidence."

As the PVA knows, if the VA had evidence that was probative and they did not list it as Evidence under the Evidence list on the decision, or they listed it but completely ignored it, I assume that is what the reconsideration was based on.

It seems absurd to me that if the BVA granted the 2003 due to negligence under 1151, then , as within the 1151 regs I have posted in our FTCA forum, that means that your husband's 1151 disability was at a ratable level since or soon enough to or after the initial malpractice began.

You might well need an IMO for that ,as they might have to do a Fenderson rating....he didnt go from Zero to 100% with SMC R overnight.

But without reading the VARO decision I am still unable to figure out the EED they gave. None of us here can .

And without knowing if he has SC ratings and also what the actual 1151 ratings are, I am still am in the dark here and I think others are too.. 1151 ratings can be combined with SC ratings, unless as in my case, my husband had a separate 100% rating for something not associated with the malpracticed conditions.They had to pay the 1151 cash in addition to any SC they paid me.

I cannot tell if that is the case here in your husband's situation.

Evidence......the VA will definitely ignore probative evidence these days whether for a direct SC or a 1151 issue. It has happened to me multiple times in the 20 years I have been a VA claimant.

On my AO DMII claim award, the VA could not even rate my husband's DMII because they never diagnosed and treated it. But I did win that claim. The VA could not send me accrued DMII benefits but I recovered a large 5 figure FTCA offset due to that award.

On my AO IHD award ( my husband's IHD also was never diagnosed and treated by VA) the VA had enough evidence from me to rate the IHD and send me the accrued amount.

All of my medical evidence I used for my 1151, FTCA, my husband's AO DMII , AO IHD, Section 1151 stroke claim and his PTSD claim was all in his VA medical records.
Your husband's medical records should certainly reveal evidence to warrant a rating back to 2003.But still that depends on info we dont have here..

And I hope someone ( such as PVA or you) have gone over those med recs very carefully. I was shocked at stuff I found in them.

I had to prepare my above claims carefully, referring to and enclosing each med rec that supported each point I made because .

VA wont do all that at all. . They skim over anything they can.

Hopefully the PVA took the time to prepare a strong Reconsideration Request based on documented medical evidence in your husband's medical records that they ignored and also I hope a timely and strong NOD was filed..

Reconsideration Requests can often take a long time.....

On my SMC CUE under 1151 , I filed the CUE in 2004 under 3 separate legal errors VA committed. They denied and I filed a reconsideration request but also I filed my NOD at the last minute, the last week of the deadline.

By 2011 the RO had still not addressed my NOD or my legal evidence.forthe recon request.

However the Nehmer people did and awarded the CUE.In 2012 , Almost 8 years after I had filed it and right before the RO was going to send it to the BVA.

I regret I really have taken lots of time on this but still we do not have the facts that we need to know. as to what to advise you to do.

The EED seems wrong to me for sure..........but there is a lot more to this then I thought.

It is by reading the actual words of the VA , their documented Reasons and Bases and Evidence list in decisions, here, that makes it possible for so many here to help so many others.

.

[TiredVeteran]

Berta, I will do my best to get someone to post the actual documents. It may take time. I don't know a NOD from a reconsideration and we rarely get copies of anything filed. Even though we have tried.

I am sorry, sure don't want to take up time unecssarily. You astound me with your knowledge.

I do recall he was rated 100 percent on the malpractice for loss of use of hands. He was already 100 s/c percent prior to the surgeries. He was not catastrophically injured prior.

Update: PVA sent me some of the paperwork, need to get two more.

When I get it all, am going to get someone to post it here. Also making files and sending those out to every place I can think of, news, politicians, etc.

We did file an IG complaint on the C&P examiner who lied and also diagnosed supratentorial overlay.

That totally had an adverse affect on proper treatment and was a patient safety issue. He missed his window of opportunity for rehab due to the VAMC's both lying.

Spinal cord injuries are clearly seen on the MRI. Both VAMC's must have been blind by choice.

Edited June 24, 2014 by TiredVeteran