Expedited Claims without cause?

[Victor Ray]

DAV told me there is no expediting claims anymore even for Vietnam Vets. Only terminally ill vets, homeless, or going to be homeless are expedited, so it took DAV 5 months to get my claim into the system because they trashed it the first time because they are a corrupt organization.

Mr. Edwards in St. Louis for DAV got Mr Stephen Kelly his 12 years of retro pay in one week without even filing a claim, the way I read it. Dan Knabe For DAV got Mike Franko’s claim “Expedited” after he had been denied once already, also got him service Connected, got his retro pay, and got him a job with DAV as well. There was no mention of homelessness, or illness besides ptsd and knee injury. 

Mr Kelly was just before me and Mr Franks was just after me and none of us fit the requirements except Mr Kelly and myself were Vietnam vets, and Mr. Kelly and Franko were Gulf War Vets, as best as I remember. I was permanently damaged by something affecting my entire internal body and skin(AO), and records hidden all my life. Edwards and Knabe got their clients records, scoured through them, and completed and closed the claim in one week. 

The VA is still withholding my records, I have used a VSO (now VFW) for the last four years, and still waiting. VFW told me it would be at least 3 or 4 years before the BVA gets to mine. Minimum 3 to 4 years, and I probably won’t even exist by then. 

This sounds like picking and choosing who is expedited, which is nepotism or being prejudiced against my claim. I filed in 1983 because the Army lied about my records in 1972 or I would have filed then. Total manipulation to keep me from Justice per Exemption 5 of FOIA. Any recourse? Is a malpractice suit the only recourse, unless they make it right with this last attempt? Thank you!

victor ray

[Gastone]

Forgot to add, I think when you hit 75, the VA will Grant the Claim or Appeal Advancement.

[Victor Ray]

42 minutes ago, Gastone said:

Do you have the Private or VA PN Clinician Notes discussing ongoing Symptoms and treatment for the period immediately after discharge to present? You do have a VMC DX of Bi-lateral PN, correct?

Those conditions you address above, have you seen any of them in any Medical Literature directly related to any form of Chronic Idiopathic Peripheral Neuropathy? When was your 1st EMG and PN Associated Bloodwork performed, Private or VA? How were the Test Results interpreted by the VA or Private Board Certified Neurologist? Any DX opinion as to possible Nexus?

No. I have nothing in my possession except letters denying access to the treatment records per 

FOIA Exemption 5 [ 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(5)]. They fall under the “Deliberative Process Privilege “, and I tried to get them months before I was discharged. There answer was “They were lost in transit from Vietnam “. In 1983 when I filed they simply did not respond to me or VFWs Request. After 45 years and 20 to 30 FOIAs or more, I got some from My hospitalization in RVN, 21 days at 3rd Surgical and 25th Evac before going to Japan for more testing. I was issued a P-3 permanent profile from a Medical Board in Vietnam on DA3349 for “ physical capacity and stamina “. I was sick, very sick, and I finally have those records, but ZERO MEDICAL RECORDS for six months after my return to CONUS. 

I guess I know the answers, and shouldn’t have asked the question, but it is very odd that they expedite claims all around me, and four years later I am still waiting since I reopened my claim. They intend to screw me over I am sure. I will be dead before they correct anything. They played me very well and manipulated everything to burn up time. They will go on long after maggots eat me up. I would like to personally meet every VA employee that had anything to do with my claim. I would like to gaze into their eyes and read the soul in that being. I want to feel what it is that compels them to make these decisions for the VA. I’d like to put eyeball to eyeball with the Executives of the VA, to see what kind of person they “really are”. My opinion is not too high right now, sorry. 

Victor Ray

[vetquest]

Victor Ray,

I agree with you 100 percent about looking into the eyes of those who have worked on your claim.  I have found myself wondering how someone could sleep at night after making some of the determinations they have.  I have met with the executive director of the Portland VA once, it did not work out, he was a politician and nothing more.  If you do want they are supposed to have an open door policy and you can request a meeting with them.  It did not help me but it might help you.

jeff

[Victor Ray]

Jeff,

Thank you for the information. I think it all comes down to the VSR that prepares the information the rater gets from the VSO or the vet or both. The dirty VSR’s destroys evidence, withholds evidence, and what ever is necessary to screw the vet over, and the VA stands behind them. It is a shame that these people walk among us. I will see what happens in the next little while, and who I need to contact to get the inner workings of the VSO, VSR, RATERS and Supervisors Administrating the manipulation of our futures. They intentionally destroyed mine, but what they do next will shape everything from now on. I may be surprised and get the honest rater who has the ability to correct this mess they’ve made. My records were never lost for one minute but 45 years to get them, or any compensation or benefits? No. It was no accident.

30% or more permanent disability incurred in the Line of Duty means retirement, and they were not going to have any of that, especially for a 20 year old, when they supposedly didn’t know the cause of the disabilities..  Well, i’m Hoping for justice. Thanks again

Victor Ray

[Gastone]

VR, have you ever discussed your Appeal with a VA Lawyer?

No Private or VMC medical records from your Discharge Date, to your 1983 Comp Claim Filing? Considering the severity of your medical conditions requiring extensive testing and treatment while in Nam, one would think that ongoing treatment upon discharge would be an automatic.

When and where did you resume treatment for your Inservice Medical Symptoms/Conditions?

Why do you believe that the USA or Federal Record Depository would single you out to conspire against you? You actually believe you have medical records hidden somewhere within your VARO for the past 45 years?  How long were you "In Country," before your symptoms presented?

 

[Victor Ray]

9 hours ago, Gastone said:

VR, have you ever discussed your Appeal with a VA Lawyer?

No Private or VMC medical records from your Discharge Date, to your 1983 Comp Claim Filing? Considering the severity of your medical conditions requiring extensive testing and treatment while in Nam, one would think that ongoing treatment upon discharge would be an automatic.

When and where did you resume treatment for your Inservice Medical Symptoms/Conditions?

Why do you believe that the USA or Federal Record Depository would single you out to conspire against you? You actually believe you have medical records hidden somewhere within your VARO for the past 45 years?  How long were you "In Country," before your symptoms presented?

 

Gastone.

I have just briefly spoken to a couple lawyers, because the want $150 from me to see if they want to represent me. I may go that route at some point.

where I lived when I discharged was three to four hours to the nearest VAMC and I had insurance. I did not have any medical records at discharge because they were supposedly lost. The treatment records by private doctors and hospitals are not kept longer than 5 an 10 years, so no, I have none, and the VA refused to service connect me in 1983, gave no records at discharge.

YES, IT should be a given, and I should have been 100% directly service Connected, and it pisses me off that I was denied and manipulated all my adult life.

i don’t know that they conspired against me. I believe I was a test subject more than likely. I was a control, someone that would not likely be exposed, so they made sure that I was exposed to study the effects for comparison to reports from hundreds ot thousands with various conditions. I was intentionally exposed and like clock work broke out with the exact symptoms 2 weeks later and hospitalized for a month after that. I was issued a P-3 profile by a medical board in Vietnam signed by four officers on DA3349, and told I was going home. It was ordered that I have over, “OVER 120 DAYS RECOVERY TIME” to stabilize.  I never got any of the recovery time but I was sent “HOME AWAITING ORDERS”, but not separated from the service. I was sent to another station and put before a board of officers. I was told nothing until there. No notice, no announcement, no assistance, no PEBLO, NO RECORDS, NOTHING. I year in the hospital should have been given, but instead I deteriorated. In 1983 the VA fee based dermatologist told me my lungs were scared spottily, and chronic lung conditions were documented in service, but it is not in his record I got from the VA. Now, 20 to 30 FOIAs and 45 years later, I finally got some records, but some have no signatures or form numbers or dates, locations, and conditions are “unspecified “ and others are “organism undetermined”. Just your regular average skin disease causing evacuation and typical permanent disabilities that are documented but denied.