Filing Ftca Questions

[gwvet90]

When filing form 95 for FTCA -

1.) Should you include statement of how your life is impacted by your disability, such as - limit of things you can do/miss out on, pain, pain meds, how pain meds affect you, long term effects.. etc...

If so - does this go with line 8 (basis of claim) or 10 (nature & extent of injury)?

Or do you just stick to med facts?

2.) Calculating amount - is there a schedual/table anywhere to help calculate how much you should ask for?

3.) Do you need to re-send all the med recs that are in your c-file or do they get it all from VARO? We have 1151 "at the rater's desk"........ what happens if FTCA filed before decession made? (Don't want to run out of time to file)

[Berta]

I told them (OGC) I had 1151 claim filed too as a re-open of my husband's 1151 claim filed 6 months prior to his death. It was in the rating board the day he died.

The charges were the same.

I dont know what this claim is about but you seem very confident in the evidence.

I had to study a lot of medical texts and information first to understand the medical symbols and the medical reports and then figure out handwritten medical entries and then study a 6 page autopsy to try to understand what all that meant.It was Rod's belief that his PTSD was not properly treated and we knew his CVA had been misdiagnosed but the VA did give him better care when they discovered that screw up- but he felt that this showed that he probably had other misdiagnosed conditions too that would eventually cause his death. I had to find the other misdiagnosed conditions. Two of them were covered up pretty good but I still found the evidence of the cover ups.

You must have done a lot of medical work and I commend you for that.

The VARO continually told me that as a layperson I was not competent enough to render a medical opinion.

General Counsel was a different story-I had a background of Pro se legal work.

Maybe it was the way I presented the case to the GC.

Just like a regular lawsuit-here is the documented medical evidence, here is the result of that evidence-it gets way beyond the initial SF 95 form.

General counsel never questioned my layperson's status.

I suggest however that this is so hard to do-and so time consuming- that a good IMO is always the best bet for this type of claim---I had Prime Facie evidence-

legalize for undebatable medical evidence of malpractice but I had to present it as Prime Facie.

That took 3 years due to the missing initial VA medical report that supported the claim.

I could have gotten an IMO in 2 weeks and saved myself months of studying medicine.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Berta