dying vet.

[paulcolrain]

my question is strange... if a vet is in a coma and on life support ,,, does the va keep paying monthly disability pay?

[Carl the Engineer]

I believe they would until there is a death certificate.  

Just sayin,

Hamslice

 

 

[11cvolley]

Just throwing this out there. Make sure there is a POA that has his will in order to best of his wishes. 

[broncovet]

The Vetran's disability benefits continue until the Veterans death, or if VA takes some other action, such as an increase, reduction, etc.  

[FormerMember]

More importantly, if the cause of the Veteran's being in a coma is service connected, he would be entitled to R1 or R2 (if at home) or SMC O if an inpatient in a nursing home (or hospital) at government expense. He does need a fiduciary established pronto with a new 21-22 showing the fiduciary as his (one time) representative as well. Even though you do not need to file a true 'claim' for SMC (Bradley v. Peake 2009), we all know how that works so send them a love letter. Go online and print a VAF 21-2680. Get your doctor(s) to fill out and sign it. Submit it with a 526EZ asking for  A&A/Loss of use of the upper/lower extremities/blind etc.  The kicker that always gets my clients over the line into SMC L (for A&A) is getting the doctor to write "But for his ___________ (spouse/daughter/son etc.), he'd have to be institutionalized in a nursing home as he is a danger to himself". Trust me. Just have the dr. jam that phrase in there in one of the answers and you have a chicken dinner winner. Remember, this is just like baking cookies. Follow the recipe and you get excellent results. Call up the VA at the 800 dial-a-prayer and tell them his medical state and zip code. If he's hospitalized over 21 days (and nights) for any SC injury, he's entitled to a 100% temp. rating for that entire month, too.

There a lot of entitlements available when you become this disabled. Unfortunately, the VA isn't going to be forthcoming and "infer" your entitlement so you have to give them a nudge. Make sure the dr. who does the 2680 lists the actual date the Vet became comatose or bedridden in order to receive proper retroactive benefits. Otherwise they grant from the date of the 2680 timestamp.