Denied for PTSD even though diagnosed and treated by the VA

[Christypl]

My husband applied for compensation for PTSD among a few other things.   He was seeing a private dr at the time.  He had a bad C&P exam (examiner asked only a couple of questions and the exam was about 5 minutes) and the first go was denied.  They said that he didn't have PTSD and he ended up with 10% for hearing loss.  We appealed the decision.  In the meantime, he started being seen regularly at the VA and was given a diagnosis of chronic PTSD.  We submitted supporting evidence about the stressor (mission logs, an article from the Marine Times and a buddy letter.  Today, he got his decision and it said that the PTSD was not service connected. What are we missing? Do we need a dr to flat out say that his PTSD was caused by combat?

[Berta]

That is excellent info-you are correct-

This is superb:

"The utter crap of PTSD is that our memory of these events is shattered into fragments. We can't remember timeframes or events or faces or sequences of events clearly. For the Vietnam guys, we suggest that they try to remember whether it was Monsoon or Dry Season.  For Iraqi, try to remember if there was some event that was near your stressor like Ashura or Eid Al-Adha or Ramadan. Or if the dates were ripening. Something that could be in a season or timeframe within two months of the event."

I worked in a vet center in 1983- and can only add for Vietnam vets-

what was Hanoi Hanna talking about at the time? What news were you getting from the "world" ( USA)?

What American songs were popular on the radio?

Does you family remember what the news was stateside before your DEROS or do they still have letters from you when you were in the Nam?

These are things that can narrow down the time frame.

VA has told vets that JSRRC could not verify their stressors. Sometimes that is a lie.

Sometimes VA wont even try to get JSRRC to verify them. 

The best stressor is the one most easily proven. My husband ( USMC Danang 1stMARDIV, Ops Starlight Rolling Thunder ), had Multiple stressors , many not even about all the firefights, and odd as things happened, he went to  Newark NJ VA for a Business loan in 1983 and walked out with a PTSD diagnosis and the claim was filed right away by VA. He had a buddy statement from the director of the Newark VA!  It was an incredible situation.I already told the full story here. The Director, also a psychiatrist , was at the scene of a horrific volunteer job the marines had to do-I think it was in the Perfume River, Vietnam  and the director ,incountry himself, was called to treat many who had immediate reactions to what they had to do. 

Within a few months he got his SC award for "nervous condition"  what they called PTSD then-at somepoint his VA med rcs changed that to PTSD.

My point to add here is also, try to get the JSRRC to verify your stressor you self. Their address ( it changed a few years ago) is here under a search. I have known vets who did that and found that VA had never attempted to contact JSRRC at all.

One other thing. Many vets do not have all of their medals and decorations on their DD 214-

The Marines ,with my husband when my husband was being discharged, were all herded into a big room, in Quantico ? given a sheet of paper and told to list their decorations etc.

They all wanted to get the hell out of there, since most of them had alredy been to Hell ( Vietnam) and none of them really knew what to put down.

Scuttlebutt said his unit got the PUC ( Presidential Unit Citation) but he sure didnt put that down,, because he really didnt know it..all he knew was 

26 years after his discharge ( he had filed a DD 149 available here) and a few months before he died, he got a DD 215- with the PUC and many other awards,decorations on it.

If you search for the DD 149 here- make sure you put Not Applicable to the :"injustice part" and mail it to the xact address it tells you to.

A corrected DD 215 can often support a stressor, because it could contain CAR, CIB, or even PUC etc to verify you were "in fear of" and "in close proximity to" hostile fire - not an exact quote , but from the 2010 PTSD regulations.

And every unit has a web site these days- many even have member lists and contact info.

This can help any vet from any period of service time get a buddy statement if they need one.

I have an article here on what a buddy statement needs to contain.

(searchable here)

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Berta
in cloud...double posts...

[Berta]

We have so much available to search that it took me time to find this info- the DD 149 form:

https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/forms/dd/dd0149.pdf

Under # 5 or 6 just put  Not applicable to the injustice part and that you just want your DD214 corrected if there is more to be added to it via a DD 215

 

 

----This is one of our many vets who had success with getting a DD 215- but as he said- send the DD 149 to the right address_

 

 

This is the most recent change I know of to contact the JSRRC -within this thread:

Note the change regarding Marines:

 https://community.hadit.com/topic/48901-jsrrc-contact-info/

[Berta]

 You said:

"We submitted supporting evidence about the stressor (mission logs, an article from the Marine Times and a buddy letter.  Today, he got his decision and it said that the PTSD was not service connected. What are we missing? Do we need a dr to flat out say that his PTSD was caused by combat?"

Did the VA list those 3 pieces of evidence in their Evidence List for the denial?

Can you scan and attach their denial here? Cover his c file #, name, address prior to scanning it.

Those 3 pieces of evidence should give JSRRC a clear picture of the stressor and if I were you I would ask them to verify it . I assume the article , and mission logs were specifically for his unit and that the buddy statement was also written properly.

If the VA failed to consider probative evidence, you can file a CUE against them----that info is in our CUE forum-

but tht depends on the wy the VA worded the decision.

Do you have a copy of the C & P exam?

Have you googled the doctor to see if they were qualified to do this exam.

Can you scan and attach the exam here ( delete C file # and any names etc prior to scanning it )?

 

 

 

[scienter]

On 8/9/2019 at 8:11 AM, Christypl said:

My husband applied for compensation for PTSD among a few other things.   He was seeing a private dr at the time.  He had a bad C&P exam (examiner asked only a couple of questions and the exam was about 5 minutes) and the first go was denied.  They said that he didn't have PTSD and he ended up with 10% for hearing loss.  We appealed the decision.  In the meantime, he started being seen regularly at the VA and was given a diagnosis of chronic PTSD.  We submitted supporting evidence about the stressor (mission logs, an article from the Marine Times and a buddy letter.  Today, he got his decision and it said that the PTSD was not service connected. What are we missing? Do we need a dr to flat out say that his PTSD was caused by combat?

If he has an attorney or VSO, they would tell him to file a notice of disagreement (NOD). Read the decision letter, it explains.