Pulmonary Arterial hypertension Claim

[ESE45]

Hi, has anyone put in a claim for pulmonary arterial hypertension and if so, how much had to be service connected?

I was diagnosed with PAH, 19 years after being discharged from the Navy, and was wondering what they look for in the claim.

 

Thanks!

[GBArmy]

Hi ESE45 Welcome. The VA uses its own definitions sometimes and other times they refuse to use common medical terms. For example, they call coronary heart disease, or hardening of the arteries, Ischemic Heart Disease. Why; who knows. No body uses IHD. I do believe that it is done on purpose sometimes just to confuse us, but that is my opinion. Anyway, to find your condition to determine what you might be rated for, go to https://militarydisabilitymadeeasy.com/  I couldn't find PAH specifically called out but it probably is covered in the early 7000 series. under a different condition name. If you really can't find it, you may need to get a medical person to help you figure out what is the term the VA is referring to. They may be able to help. That is all I can offer for your direct question. I will add however, that if it is a rated condition, and it probably is, that is just a small piece of the puzzle. You are going to have to come up with what we call the the 3 Caluza Triangle elements. That is a diagnosis now, an event or record that is in your personal medical records, and then a nexus, or way to connect the two. If you weren't diagnosed with a heart condition in the service, then you will need an IMO from a (heart) doc that gives you the nexus. So if you find it is a rated condition, we encourage you to put in for a disability claim, but you have a lot of work to do to prep that claim. Research is the name of the game. We are here to help if we can. Good luck.

 

 

 

 

[Richard1954]

Look under 6817 Pulmonary Vascular Diseases.....  as far as getting is service connected ... you need to determine what is the actual problem.. as Pulmonary vascular disease covers a lot of different diseases.

Then before you even consider putting in a claim you should get an independent medical opinion  from your doctor(s) especially if this condition was diagnosed 19 years after service. Your doctors will have to 

review all you active duty and private medical records before he/she can determine if your condition is service connected or  has a secondary service connection.  If you were to just put in a claim,  you will likely 

have to do a Claims and Pension exam (C&P)  and you don't want a VA paid doctor that only spends minutes with you to determine your case. 

[GBArmy]

If it was misdiagnosed for 20 years, then it could be a cue claim, especially if your conditions have gotten worse because the misdiagnosis ment that you did not receive proper/appropriate medical care and has caused harm, discomfort, suffering etc. for decades. Again, that is going to assume 1)you can prove you are service-connected, and, 2) you get a terrific IMO from an expert specialist in the appropriate field because of the potential of all that back pay. The VA will really fight against a cue. You also  could not file a cue but reopen due to new evidence. Once you get s-c, then you can re-eval your options. That probably would be the track I would take. You can always go after a cue, no time limit. There is a lot of expertise here on cue claims. But you can't make a decision until you get a clear understanding on what your condition really is. IMO

[ESE45]

Well it is rated at 100%, but just wanted to know how they connect it to service. It is very hard to diagnose, and I doubt that anyone has really been diagnosed while in the service, seeing that it can be mistaken for asthma, which I was diagnosed with, in the Navy.

[vetquest]

GBArmy is right about this being hard to get service connected.  Unless there is an injury or entry in your SMR that highlights an incident that might lead to your condition.  Not to say it cannot be done.  I had a disability service connected after thirty years due to a solid IMO and medical literature that supported it.

[ESE45]

Well, I am waiting on my doctor to be done with testing and she will let me know if was misdiagnosed with asthma all these years, when in actuality I had this disease. But if not, maybe then go for the the sleep apnea and have it connected to the asthma, which is service connected.