10-min interview request: How can physicians advocate for veterans?

[Sarah Greenberg]

Andyman,

Your post is so helpful for me. I want to capture the frustration and hopelessness that accompanies the VA claims process. My grandfather is a vet, and my mom worked with the VA on his behalf to procure him hearing aids at a reduced price. I know that isn't the same process as getting disability compensation, but this process was so convoluted and frustrating. My grandfather, who's 89 years old, would have NEVER been able to figure out everything the way my mom did. 

Thank you for giving me the vet's perspective!

Sarah

[Sarah Greenberg]

Broncovet,

Thank you for reading my post and thank you SO MUCH for your clarifications. I'm revising my article now. I am blown away by all of the feedback I've received in this forum!

Thank you again!
Sarah

[Andyman73]

Andyman,

Your post is so helpful for me. I want to capture the frustration and hopelessness that accompanies the VA claims process. My grandfather is a vet, and my mom worked with the VA on his behalf to procure him hearing aids at a reduced price. I know that isn't the same process as getting disability compensation, but this process was so convoluted and frustrating. My grandfather, who's 89 years old, would have NEVER been able to figure out everything the way my mom did. 

Thank you for giving me the vet's perspective!

Sarah

Sarah,

It's the least I can do, to assist you with your research.  You can even ask your Mom about her experience(you may have already done so) trying to get her Dad taken care of.  Even so simple as hearing aids, and yet it was a tough hill to climb.

So you can only begin to imagine a Vet, with no combat or traumatic experience to connect his mental health issues to their service, has to face Mt. Everest of a climb to service connection.  Or even worse, a Vet with an exposure related illness(Agent Orange, for example) that is being told by the VA that they are out of luck, since their exposure illness is not recognized.

A good example of that would be the Vets who were stationed at Johnston Atoll, a chemical and biological weapons disposal site(now closed).  The VA and the Fed. Gov't. hasn't recognized any exposure related illnesses from there.  A 42 yr old lady my twin brother served with at Johnston Island, just died from thyroid cancer.  She was perfectly healthy before being stationed there.  And has no known family history of any disease.  But thyroid cancer is a known exposure related illness from AO and other toxins.

I hope and pray your article will open the eyes of folks with the power to do something to help fix the VA.

Semper Fi.

Andyman

[broncovet]

Sarah, 

   I liked "Slicks" post, above, better than mine.  If there is a conflict between what I posted and Slick, go with his, as I did most of mine from memory, and he cited others.  

[Berta]

This first part of this above  post is taken directly from a post I made here(linked below) and there are many discussions here on how to get a solid IMO or IME to support a claim.

I think the term"eye care specialist" is very broad and would hope there are good vision professionals  out there who would be willing to render  strong IMOs/IMEs if veterans need them.

I also hope veterans get the same type of care I got recently as a civilian who had cataract surgery from private doctors.

That involved a surgeon as well as numerous eye tests and pre ops and the post ops were done by two different doctors.

Cataracts can often be found as a secondary condition to service connected  diabetes mellitus but I have not seen them directly service connected.

I am bringing up this correctable condition, which has become a very easy surgical procedure these days, because in the past many vets have not had good results when VA performed cataract surgery. This is one of them:

http://www.va.gov/vetapp99/files4/9935913.txt

Also a notation in an eye exam my veteran husband  got at the VA (his 20/20 vision without need for glasses had suddenly began to deteriorate) was part of my evidence for my DMII AO direct SC death claim, as it indicated he should have been checked for the cause of this visual problem but he got no further testing.

I used his current Driver's license revealing 20/20 vision , lay statements he had bagged the first deer of the season that year without a scope, and then I used  this medical entry to prove,( with much other evidence), that he had never been properly diagnosed or treated for DMII and that lack of proper diagnosis and care contributed to his death.The eye exam had revealed a documented symptom of DMII that should have been evaluated by VA ,causing a sudden rapid decline in his vision and never was followed up on by VA.

The BVA awarded that claim.

These days I bet most vets do get very ample eye care from VA.But there have been situations whereby they needed a strong IMO if VA had not provided that care properly, and if they incurred a resulting disability because of that.

A strong IMO/IME for a potential FTCA or 1151 claim should definitely provide an ample medical rationale that ,but for the eye surgery ( or whatever happened at VA) there is no other medical etiology for the additional visual disability/impairment  that the veteran has, that is directly due to improper VA medical care.

 

 

 

 

[Berta]

Just to add for all legal beagles who have discussed TDIU Vs 100 Schedular :

http://www.va.gov/vetapp12/files5/1235345.txt

The VA obviously caused the veteran to have additional disability due to botched eye surgery.

The case contains a very good rationale on the difference between TDIU and  100% Schedular  and unemployability.

This "moot issue" factor came up here recently.