SECONDARY VA CLAIMS: Conditions Linked to Traumatic Brain Injury

Hello and welcome back to my channel. My name is Dwayne. I got a video for that Kimball, United States Army veteran and retired VA rating specialist. Today's video, I'm going to be discussing TBI, traumatic brain injuries, and secondary conditions that you can claim due to your service-connected TBI. Make sure you stick around. Today's video is being sponsored by the Ridge wallet. My friends over at Ridge sent me this wallet a few weeks ago and I've been using it every since and now I fell in love with it. Unlike my old wallet, you can see the comparison in the Ridge wallet is not bulky at all. It can hold up to 12 credit cards. It has a cool money strap on the back and this wallet is very doable. You go out to the website and you can choose from many designs. I chose the carbon fiber, but not only do they have wallets, they have rings, they have luggage, key cases, phone cases, and pens. You can click the link below and when you check out, use the code YouTube10. Yes, YouTube10. Ridge has over a hundred thousand five-star reviews. If you're fully satisfied with this wallet, you can return it within 99 days and get a full refund. But I know you won't be disappointed, so make sure you pick yours up today. So, today's video, we're going to be talking about TBI and conditions that you can claim secondary to TBI. A lot of veterans have been reaching out to me and saying, Duane, I don't understand TBI, traumatic brain injury. Can you do a video on it? So, as my name, Duane, I got a video on that. Today's video is TBI. Slide number one. Here's slide number one. You can see this is the M21 manual reference for definition for TBI. The term traumatic brain injury means the physical, cognitive, and or behavioral, emotional, residual disability resulting from an event of external force causing an injury to the brain. Now, that is important and I'm going to explain here in a minute. Slide number two. This is another manual reference and it talks about TBI events, okay? So, I'm not going to go ahead, I'm not going to read the entire M21-1 reference here. I'm going to point out the items that I have highlighted in red, okay? So, it says, any period of loss of consciousness or decreased consciousness, any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the injury, any alteration in mental state at the time of the injury, confusion, disorientation, slow thinking, etc. Now, those three bullet comments are key and they are key when you are explaining your event to that third-party CMP exam, okay? So, if you were in combat and your vehicle was hit by an IED or a non-combat event, maybe you were in a training accident, you were repelling and you fell and you hit your head, they are going to ask you, did you lose consciousness? Did you have decreased consciousness? If you did, you need to state that, okay? What else do I have highlighted in red? Under notes, the TBI event has two necessary components, the external force and the indivisible acute manifestations of brain injury immediately following the external force, okay? So, that may sound confusing, but I'm going to break it down for you. When I rated cases and I saw these CMP exams, the veterans that won their TBI cases, one, they had an actual event, okay? Some type of external force, like I said, IED explosion or some type of training accident during a non-combat event, okay? But they were able to explain, hey, I passed out when I woke up, people said I lost consciousness for two or three minutes or whatever, okay? You have to explain that event to that examiner. And another key factor is, when you file this claim, you might want to already have a diagnosis of TBI. Moving right along, slide number three. Evaluating the initial severity of TBI. For the purposes of determining the initial severity of the TBI, consider all factors from the table. Now, I'm not sharing this 38 CFR, okay? But they go ahead and say, review medical records and lay statements for evidence of an MRI, a PT, loss of consciousness. There it is again, they're talking about their loss of consciousness. Now, when I rate it, and I cannot remember a time where a veteran did not have loss of consciousness and they got service-connected. I'm not saying that you can't, I'm just saying I haven't seen it. The number one thing they're probably looking for, and they've said it here twice, loss of consciousness, all right? They have a PTA, including any loss of memory, okay? So, all of these bullet comments, you don't need all of them, but you got to have more than one along with that diagnosis. That is key, people. And that's with any claim these days. Do you want to submit a claim without a diagnosis? There might be a few conditions, but I would say going forward, you want to have that diagnosis when you submit that claim. Let's keep moving. Slide number four. Okay. TBI residuals. Now, we're getting into that secondary conditions, okay? So, under the no section, it says TBI residuals can manifest years after the initial injury. Now, I'm not no medical professional, but the VA's manual reference is saying that they can. Now, if you're being treated by a physician, a physician, a medical physician for this TBI, whether it be private or a VA specialist, you might want to ask them to put these things in your progress notes because that can see it, okay? A medical opinion is necessary when the medical evidence of record does not show a clear-cut etiology for a sign or symptom claimed as a delayed effect, okay? They're giving you some nuggets here, all right? It may not sound like it, but in my opinion, they're giving you the answers to the test. Now, the diagnostic code that covers TBI is down below. Under 38 CFR 4.124A, diagnostic code 8045. If you are going in for service connection for TBI, you have something documented in service, okay? You have a diagnosis. You get scheduled for that C&P exam. You want to go and look at diagnostic code 8045. You might want to print it out because it's kind of lengthy. And what they're doing, they're covering what are called facets, and there's several of them. And they rank them like 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and then they have criteria for each one. You want to become familiar with those facets before you go to that C&P exam. Let's keep going. Slide number five. Now, here are the nuggets, people. Here it is, the conditions that are or can be secondary to TBI, all right? And so, it breaks it down into three categories, physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional, okay? You got depression, PTSD, difficulty communicating orally and or writing, inability to execute purposeful previously learned motor tasks. I apologize, people. I'm from the country. Some words, I get tongue-tied. Let's keep going. Muscle weakness or incomplete paralysis, difficulty swallowing, headaches, dizziness, seizure disorders, weakness, sleep disturbance, blurred vision, okay? So, if you have a TBI, you have one of these conditions diagnosed, you can claim it secondary to TBI. It still has to go through the process and you have to get that medical opinion with the nexus. Now, sorry for all the slides, but when I rated, I didn't have a lot of cases as it pertains to TBI. The ones I did, veterans always came in with a diagnosis, okay? Obviously, they understood the facets of their diagnostic code 8045. They also understood the secondary conditions because they would claim them at the same time. And if you do that, the doctor has to provide a medical opinion and nexus statement, which would be a secondary nexus statement. Now, before you file this claim, make sure you have a diagnosis. I strongly believe that will help you be successful in winning your service connection for TBI. That being said, make sure you like, subscribe, hit that notification button, and as always, share this video with your fellow veterans. Thank you.