Acitve Duty Military or Veterans with ICD

[swensonrc]

I am looking to get in contact with any Active Duty or Veterans that have an ICD. I am presently going through the PEB process and have just demanded a Formal Board. I believe the % that the PEB is trying to give me is way below what I am entitled to. Please contact me if you have experience with this. Thanks, Ron

[Lisa Salberg]

I know there are a few folks out there who have had experience in this area.

Best wishes,
Lisa

[Reenie]

Ron, my husband was diagnosed while active duty Air Force 5 years ago. He got his ICD within 6 months of diagnosis. I would be glad to talk with you about our experience, but I can't claim that yours would be similar. I assume you're in the Marines or Navy since you're in San Diego? Their system may be different. My husband was allowed to stay active duty and retired at 20 years, just about 18 months ago. Are you talking about medical retirement? He did go to the VA to be assessed as a disabled vet and does have a 30% disability, which is the lowest for a heart condition I think. However, neither his HCM nor his ICD really affect his daily life. If he were in worse shape he might get more disability. I'm not sure. If you would like to talk with me send a private message, the button is at the bottom of this post, and I'll be glad to make arrangements to speak with you.

Reenie

PS: Since he was returned to duty with no restrictions he couldn't/didn't appeal the decision. For the Air Force it's the only decision that can't be appealed. He wanted to stay in Service anyway, so it didn't matter that he was returned to duty.

[Janet McClure]

Exhusband receives 100% VA Disability

I was still married and my exhusband was still in the Air Force when he was diagnosed. They did not do anything at that time but put him in pretty strict limitations. He wanted to get out that time on medical retirement but they would not let him. He was diagnosed in 1997. In 1998 he started passing out and was put in the hospital for observation. While in the hospital he actually had chest pains and went into VTach while on the Telemetry. They immediately moved him to ICU and 5 days later he was transferred to a different hospital getting an AICD. The doctors told him he could not drive for 6 months. They also stated he would not be able to remain active duty. It took about six months for him to get approved for Social Security Disability. His doctors who did the AICD wrote letters for the VA. He had a local rep for the VA who personally carried his package to Atlanta. It was actually approved within 30 days and he did not miss a check from his activie duty pay to his VA pay. He did waive all of his Air Force Retirement to receive full VA benefits. Of course the VA benefits are not taxable.

Up until he had pretty severe symptoms he could not do anything. Good luck. I know it was a huge mess before he started passing out. The medicine he was on made him so tired and he had a hard time working all day. The Air Force did not give him any breaks on that. It was not until he got much worse that they did something.

Janet