Loss of Use

[carlos_v]

Hi, my husband’s health has poorly deteriorated and has been diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder. The doctors say he developed this because of his PTSD. He had severe PTSD and was an alcoholic. He attempted to kill himself many times before. He finally stopped drinking after therapy after many years but since December has developed this disorder. The PTSD was service connected back in 2011 at 70%. He is now experiencing loss of use of both lower extremities, Lou of right arm, he cannot see out of right eye and cannot hold bowel or urine. How should I go forward with his claim? Can someone give me some advise please. Thank you so much for any input because I’m kind of loss.

[Dustoff1970]

Even though you may meet the criterial and qualifications for a VA service connection disability you may not be able to receive an important formal doctors nexus opinion or DBQ stating your disability is due to your service or another service connected condition because some doctors and their staffs are lazy, indifferent or hostile to vets receiving VA money.

Here is what has worked for me since 1987 to present day.  I have submitted copies of VA, Army, private medical records and other evidence with my numerous claims and appeals with almost 100 percent success and won those claims/appeals without a doctors nexus statement with only one recent exception where the paid for opinion was also successful.  I have been 100% P&T since 98 and now also with SMC-S.  

IF you contact me I can send you a detailed list of the medical and other evidence that has won my claims and appeals.  What has worked for me is no guarantee it will work for you.

It is a disservice IMHO for anyone to discourage a vet from filing a disability claim just because they cannot get some chicken*** doctor to fill out a DBQ or sign a nexus statement as the vet may still have the other medical and non medical evidence in their files or possession to win. 

I encourage vets to seek opinions of others and do their own research as I have done.

Some vets like to brag about their receiving a VA or private doctors nexus opinion free of charge or it was paid for by their insurance or others and I congratulate them on their good fortune.  I have learned and worked the hard way for my benefits and proud of it.

I learned many years ago to in my case to correctly assume the VARO will deny my claim with a BS statement like "NO EVIDENCE" and then I have to appeal to the BVA or higher U.S. CAVC court which I have done on my own successfully.  This has created jealously on part of some other vets.  Too Bad they can still get happy.

My comment is not legal advice as I am not a lawyer, paralegal or VSO representative.

[Mr cue]

 

On 3/27/2022 at 10:20 AM, carlos_v said:

He is now experiencing loss of use of both lower extremities, Lou of right arm, he cannot see out of right eye and cannot hold bowel or urine. How should I go forward with his claim?

 

It sound like he is eligible for smc benfits.

And if you or and one care for him he should be getting smc l.

I would start by read up on smc benefits and loss of use under smc benfits.

To help you get a little understand what it is.

And than apply.

There is a lot about loss of use under smc benfits.

Even look at a few bva decision about loss of use under smc benfits.

And look up aid@attendence.

It will help you get a ideal of what it take to get there. 

But to me it sound like you should apply they are going to order a aid and attendence comp exam.

This what I had to do. To get smc l for need of help other

Basic doctor will look at what he can't do and what you help him with.

[brokensoldier244th]

Will you please stop cut/pasting the same block paragraph into most every post in every thread? We get it, you won some claims without an opinion- for PRESUMED contentions-so an opinion wasn't needed for at least most of it. 

[Dustoff1970]

Carlos you can send msg to me on this forum by clicking on my profile.  I am no expert and others here are more knowledgeable about FND.  However, I think FND is caused by both his PTSD and alcoholism that is also due to his PTSD as he drank the alcohol as self medication to relieve his PTSD symptoms.  The Federal Courts/CAVC many years ago finally forced the VA to recognize alcoholism in vets with PTSD was a direct result of and caused by their PTSD.  In 1985 to 92 this was not the case and chicken chit VA doctors and raters said my PTSD alcoholism was due to willful misconduct. 

Now alcoholism can be used to increase PTSD rating as it is a symptom indicator of serious PTSD.

Google and Bing search is your friend and just like me you will have to do your own research.  For example I have had great success using search terms like PTSD, Alcoholism, granted, BVA, or Board, veterans, appeals all at one time in the search box and received many hits taking me to some BVA decisions or veteran or  law firm websites that provide the information free of charge such as Cornell. You can use same words in this forum search box that can give you more comments and replies to this topic.

You can also type in your search quest Functional Neurological Disorder, Symptoms, Causes and you will receive many hits listing Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and many others for more information. You do not have to use comma separating the search words.

Your husband's case sounds complicated to me and you need to contact a paid experienced VSO to handle your claim.  Like I said earlier there is no charge to you.

You can use same search words in the Board of Veterans Appeals decision search page found here that will give you the decisions that contain very helpful info how to on your claim.  However this BVA website is down or not functioning at the present time.  Maybe because too many vets like me were using it to win or claims.  But using the above search words in Google search will also list some BVA board decisons that are fairly easy to read. Before another quick draw tur jumps in here to take over  let me say that BVA board decisions are not legal precedent and  cannot be used as legal proof in your appeal or claim but I still use the info contained in those prior decisions with good success.

https://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html

My comment is not legal advice as I am not a lawyer, paralegal or VSO representative

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Dustoff 11

[Dustoff1970]

YOU CAN ALWAYS SKIP OVER MY COMMENTS AND THEREFORE LOWER YOUR BP.  IT IS EASY TO DO.  I WILL NOT BE READING ANY MORE OF YOUR COMMENTS.

Well Broken Sport it is because of you that I enter that comment on each of the post.  You finally admitted that a doctor's medical treatment notes can sometimes serve as a nexus connection to enable a vet to be service connected on a disability on a direct or secondary basis and a formal nexus opinion statement IS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED in all cases.  I have read some of your previous post on this and another forum strongly implying a doctor's nexus opinion is needed always in vets winning claims and appeals. Others also always incorrectly desperately claim a vet must have a favorable DBQ filled out by a doc in order for the vet to win his claim. SHISH.

My successful experience for over 40 years has been there are many ways to establish a nexus connection thru medical and non medical evidence for me and other vets to be granted our VA disability claims and some of these claims had absolutely nothing to do with presumed conditions.  Again you deliberately misread my comments.

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Dustoff 11

[brokensoldier244th]

I said that at the start, too.
 

You must have missed it while trying to talk down to me like my dad. I was a veteran for almost 20 yrs before my job now- this isn’t my first rodeo, either. And, bully for you, I guess I post in more than 1 spot. I'm on Reddit and a mod in a FB group, too, you want to sleuth that out then go ahead. It doesn't make what I posted incorrect.
 

You’re saying you win without them. You also won based on presumptive contentions. Many vets don’t have that, or 40 yrs of medical treatment, that so an opinion of kind outside the VA is advantageous to them.

You made a blanket statement based on what worked for you. I’m telling you how it works for everyone else, and how it works during the claim process. Take it or leave it, but your blanket statement is misleading to veterans that see it and think “oh, I guess I don’t need one….” when their medical is just a list of symptoms with no discussion about what may have caused them.
 

Therefore some kind of opinion is going to be a lot more beneficial, especially if they get a negative opinion from a C&P. A list of symptoms alone says little of evidentiary value. /out

Edited March 30, 2022 by brokensoldier244th