What Condition My Condition Was In  CA: 1973-2004

A summary of multiple years of being misclassified wrongfully by the VA and appeals to correct and receive proper benefits.  Included are links to copies of actual documents and correspondence.

After returned from Vietnam after my 123 combat missions and being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (Help in saving 3 downed airmen behind enemy lines) and 6 Air Medals I was suffering from what is now know as PTSD.

I was initially classified as being unemployable at 100% for Acute Anxiety Reaction.
Then the VA changed my diagnosis to Schizophrenia Latent Type which is not a service connected disability. They then used this diagnosis to cut my benefits to 70% terminating my unemployability.

Then, in less than two days, they took away my 70% for Acute Anxiety Reaction and reduced it to a 50% for Schizophrenic Latent Type classification.  This action violated VA regulations that state this should have been done over an extended period of time.
These actions reduced my benefit amount by $800 per month and made it difficult to survive and pretty much destroyed my life during this period.

I appealed these classifications and after years of appeals I was reinstated. During the appeals process the VA ignored that my original classification as 100% unemployable and destroyed, ignored and buried the initial finding and documents of 100% Unemployable rating.

History

While attending the University of Washington, pursuing a chiropractic degree and license I had a 'flashback'. (pre PTSD findings were called Chronic Anxiety Reaction).  Which crippled me so much that it forced me to drop out of the W.

In the winter of 75. I went to the VA. The first thing the VA Psychiatrist did was put me on Thorazine, up to 800 mg a day, as well as: Navane and Triilifon. These drugs dull your mind and make you stupid.   

I applied for service connected benefits in 1976 and received a 50% rating for Acute Anxiety Reaction. I filed a Notice of Disagreement though the Local VFW office in Century Square in Seattle. I saw a VA Doctor C. Richard Johnson in January of 1977 and was awarded a 70% service connection for Acute Anxiety Reaction and a total rating of 100% due to unemployability.

Most of the following documents were found a year or more after these events happened.

This report is never used in adjudicating my case. They only used Latent Schizophrenia as their defense.

On October 3, 1977 the VA adjudicators issued a "Request for Medical Examination", scheduled for 11/2/77. (They asked to reopen my Case) File w/ a request to Note a Report from Dr. C. Glenn Clements This document shows that the VA had already decided to cut my benefits by changing a Chronic Anxiety Reaction, rated at 70% w/a 100% rating due to unemployability, TO: A Schizophrenia Reaction, Latent Type, Rated at 50%. Dr. C. Richard Johnson states... "THIS does not represent a change in his basic / condition, BUT, only a change in diagnosis." On March 31, 1978 I find out that the VA had made a Rating decision by taking away my employability rating by changing it to a 70% rating for Schizophrenia, Latent Type. (The VA did this at the end of month because they only pay you for the month at the end). Then, On April Fools Day, the next day, the VA cuts my rating to 50% for Latent Type Schizophrenia. This represented a loss of $800 dollars a month. Gone, without notice.

These actions by the VA obviously exacerbated my condition because of the stress caused by the financial results and the medical treatments that were mostly mind numbing drugs nearly took my life. The VA lied in saying I took drugs before I went in the service. Including this lie in diagnosing my condition and putting this in my records.

Every day 20 Veterans suffering from cases like mine take their own lives. One could have easily been me too during this period.

It took 6 years of appeals of the VA to get my disability back.

Below are 12 documents in chronological order of my ratings findings and various doctor findings for this journey. They all start their reports ignoring the 100% initial rating dated11-07 1977

11-07-1977 Proof of Screwing  - Change from Chronic Anxiety Reaction to Schizophrenic Latent Type - Dr. Johnson and reduced to 50%

12-07-1979 - Denial by Dr. Nelson – Reduced to 40%

03-24-1981 - Dr. Peterson Confirmation of earlier PTSD Norman Peterson

09-08-1981 - Findings – Reduced to 50%

11-19-81 - Symptom List – Handwritten list of my condition

10-21-1982  - Senator Jackson Letter – Temporary 100%

11-06-1984 -  BVA Board Appeal - Hearing Back to 50% - BVA Rating Board Hearing

08-22-1984 – Swords to Plowshares -  Appeal addressing my use of illegal drugs before I joined the service lies and put them in my records to influence further decisions.

08-28-1984 - Kormos Report – This report gives my 100% rating back for PTSD secondary for Acute Anxiety Reaction

04-11-1985  - VA Claim Doc -  Appeal Approved condition back to 100%

12-17-1985 -  Findings -  10 pages full appeal history - Award 100%

Summary of all decisions

05-22-1987  -  VA response by Eaton and James De Wire - They reinstate my 100% rating and denied any retroactive benefits from the date of Kormos Report (1984) The amount not paid was $42,000.00

04-22-1991  -  George personal letter to Congressman Frank Riggs re Charges against VA (Bosco Lack of response etc.)

10-18-2004  letter-Thompson-Boxer-Feinstein on VA errors and admissions