Denied Service Connection

[dlove74us]

I applied in 2016 for High Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea and Diabetes and was denied “not service connected”. In 2017 I applied for PTSD and  was approved for “Service Connection” I reapplied in 2018 for the previous denials, as a secondary to PTSD. Again I was denied because they stated the conditions occurred prior to my service connection for PTSD.

Not sure what to do at this point.  Appeal?

[vetquest]

Wow, they really stuck you on this one.  I am considering a appeal for broken ankle that is still broken and cannot be repaired.  I requested service connection for this before my neuropathy was approved.  It looks like I would be on the same track as they have you on.  Do you have a VSO representing you?  See if you can find one you can trust and ask them if there is any way around this conundrum.

 

[dlove74us]

2 minutes ago, vetquest said:

Wow, they really stuck you on this one.  I am considering a appeal for broken ankle that is still broken and cannot be repaired.  I requested service connection for this before my neuropathy was approved.  It looks like I would be on the same track as they have you on.  Do you have a VSO representing you?  See if you can find one you can trust and ask them if there is any way around this conundrum.

 

Thank you.

[Gastone]

 HBP, SA, DM II (to a certain extent), and PTSD Symptoms are usually present for a rather significant period of time before an actual Medical diagnosis is made. Any IMO or Clinician Treatment Note regarding a Reverse Nexus would be considered strictly speculative and Medically Unsupportive of your Secondary Claim.

The VA Religiously (per VA Reg & 38 CFR 4) uses the Date of DX for all SC Secondary Claims. I have never read about a Reverse Nexus Secondary Appeal Claim or Award.

[vetquest]

Thanks Gastone.  I was hoping for a different answer but will defer to your experience.

[FormerMember]

Someone (VA?) is blowing smoke up your rear end. I can get anyone SC for anything at any time regardless of how many times or when they got denied or in which order.  Here's a pertinent example. My Vet goes to Vietnam and loads caskets on departing C-141s at TSN for 8 months. He helps unload wounded from Dustoffs. Finally, it warps him and he begins snorting smack. The AF pulls him aside and gives him a one-time shot at rehab and a clean sheet. They evac him to Wilford Hall MC at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. He is cleaned up but his psyche is irreparably damaged. They 86 him and give him a DD 257 as an incorrigible drug addict with personality disorders. I wrote this in 2015- a full year before I was accredited by VA. https://asknod.org/2015/08/20/the-good-humor-man-at-tan-son-nhut-ab/

He filed for bent brain as he left in '70. VA denied and said his Heroin and ETOH were the cause of his mental disorders. He lost 5 more times to the present (2015). I filed anew last fall and tuned up the claim with a good, rewritten stressor. No buddy letters. No evidence of PTSD or GAD (back in those days we called it Generalized Anxiety Disorder) in service.  VA examined him and denied yet again this spring. Denial was for "no dx of PTSD".  VA insisted he had a MDD secondary to drug addiction for 48 years. Suddenly, now, there's no mention of all those denials based on drugs being the reason he's bent. I promptly went to my nexus doctors and got a beautiful dx of PTSD due to all those human popsicles in caskets he was loading. I got the shrink to say the drugs were an attempt to self-medicate and good medical treatises on the fact that drug use doesn't cause bent brain syndrome. VA just scheduled a new c&p to rate him on Friday last. Never ever, ever depend on VES/QTC doctors to write a favorable nexus. VA denied for every reason under the sun for 48 years. I won on attempt #6 because it's a simple recipe. If you refuse to follow it, you lose. In the instant case mentioned above, you (dlove74us) are being given bogus info and told to believe it.

One thing I have learned in my 30 years of doing this is the need for essential, valid knowledge. There is a lot of incorrect info out there being disseminated to Vets-often by VSOs. Once you understand the "game", you cannot lose. This presumes you have a legitimate claim (but I treat that as a given). VA denies by depriving you of a nexus-not because you are not entitled- but because they are an Insurance Co. That's what they do. They deny and frequently in case nobody noticed. You merely have to get the nexus letter to win-even if you don't get it for 48 years. 

One trick most do not realize is the old "benefit of the doubt" rule we laugh about. You file. VA denies. You get your IMO and file it with your NOD. VA is forbidden to develop negative evidence against you so the claim is now in equipoise. Equipoise = tie goes to the runner-ergo you win. You may have to go to the BVA on some contentious point of law like a jetgun claim for Hep C. In that case, you hand your IMO to a VLJ rather than a dumb-s__t rater. Bingo, you win. Let VA deny. They have to have a succinct "Finding of Fact" to deny with. Let them develop this finding so you can rebut it with a nexus. Turn their game against them. Once they commit with their negative nexus, you have the opportunity to rebut with your IMO and will win.  Sadly, I see many develop their claims and think VA is going to see the light and agree with them. Not. The M 21 was not developed to grant claims. It sounds good but the manual is designed to provide the excuse needed to deny with. I buy my nexus letters for a flat $2,000 apiece. They are always bulletproof.

I've had 4 losses in about 1000 attempts since 2008. Reasons? 1) Liar (was never in Vietnam); 2) Liar (admitted to drug addiction in 1993 and then testified in 2014 he was clean as the driven snow); 3) Lied about OTH discharge; and 4) Liar (lots of UCMJ violations for more things than I can list here and most were not LOD). You win because a) you're right  and b) you told the truth. If the STRs and the claims file bear out your contentions, you will always succeed. If you failed, you forgot to supply one of the needed three ingredients. If I can get a Vet SC for glioblastoma for Camp LeJeune water and it isn't on the list, then you folks can do it too.  https://www.va.gov/vetapp18/files3/1815897.txt

I'm not a miracle worker nor do I profess to be one. I use VA's game against them. I suggest you do the same.

Edited June 24, 2018 by asknod

[FormerMember]

On 6/29/2018 at 11:45 AM, broncovet said:

Even Berta seems to agree that VA doesnt award PTSD benefits to Vets whose only diagnosis is by a Private doc.  We didnt just make this stuff up.

Loyal, get serious. I never suggested that you could win solely based on a private Nexus. Note I said you have to be denied first. That generally happens to 85% of us the first time out. Remember my recipe. Rebut the denial on the VA's findings of Fact. 

P.S. I forgot to add. As of 2010, VBA forbid VHA doctors to dx PTSD or be terminated. What you hear about in this regard is that many VAMC's are right next door to a teaching hospital who supplies Doctors who practice at both venues. Sometimes you can get the "private" doctor to write your IMO because VA has no control over him/her.

The term "white wall" is a phalanx of doctors who will never argue with one another. VA pays VES shrinks to deny. VA offers VES Docs 30 pieces of silver four times a day to deny Vets. Many retired shrinks are  tempted. But if you produce a valid IMO that looks like the one above, the VES doctor will be forced to concur. Mine rebutted every finding of fact by VA.  The purpose of the followup VA c&p is to correct an "obvious" error of diagnosis-i.e. say that the Vet now does have bent brain. That is the real secret to your win. As my daddy used to say, "It ain't a f-up until you can't fix it. I guess I haven't run into one I can't fix yet.

Edited July 1, 2018 by asknod