My father served with teh 24th Infantry Regiment - 24th Infantry Division in KOrea 1950-1953. He was in three major battles there. He had suffered some problems from his service time but had never ever once applied for beneifts. He didn't realize he was even enittled to alot of the things he was entitled to. I can remember being woken up numerous times by him dreaming and yelling out in Japanese or hollaring for my mom to get his gun. Us kids used to chuckle about it when we were younger. It wasn't till I got a little older that I started realizing it was post stress that could be causing those restless nights and dreams. I can remember even as a smal child him always complaining about ringing in his ears and him having trouble hearing. He had suffered frost bite in Japan and had poor ciruclation since then. Thre are several other issues that were going on that were service related as well. I finally came to visit him after being gone for 5 years and made him finally go to the VA. They said right away that he should have been in years ago because he was entittled to benefits from all the things he had going on. Of course there is the whole big process of determining the disabilites and so forth.

We started that process in the begining of October 2005. He had been tests done on his hearing, had been seeing some one about post stress ect. He had more appointments set up but he had to postpone them due to an upcoming surgery. He had an anurism and went in for surgery a few weeks later at the VA hospital on OCtober 31, 2005. The doctors there discovered he had a lot of plaque buildup in his veins and took it apon themselves to try to "scrape" it...his veins were week, we beleive possibly due to radiation and kemo from cancer he had several years before this...his veins ended up ripping from this proces and they could not repair it and he passed away due to bleeding to death.

Because he never finished the process to determine his diabilites or the percentage he was diabled ( they believed he would have got 80-100% is what we were orignially told ) but becaues they never finished the process he never recieved any benefits and they also said since the process was not finished that my mother would not recieve any either. They only thing that was ever recieved were some burial benefits. But nothing else.

I would have thought since some of the tests had been completed that they would have recieved something or my mother would have as a survivor. One thing I read about survivor benefits said that the veteran had to be rcieving or " entitle to recieve" benefits in order for the spouse to recieve them in the event of their death. The doctors who had completed some of the tests said that yes he did indeed suver disabling from military service...so even though all the tests were not completed in all theareas and he had not yet got benefits..doesn't that sound like he was still determined to be..."entitled to benefits". So I am just wondering if anyone knows more about this kind of thing. IS it possibe that my mother may still have been entitled to benefits more then just the burial benefits and she was just not given all the correct information about the subject that she should have been??

They are both passed now, I lost my mother Feb 2007. Having me and my sister be her full time 24 hour a day care takers after she became so ill after loosing my dad. Watching her stuggle health and finacial wise, sometimes not even having enough to pay for the meds she needed bothers me espeically when I know that there should have been benefits she could have been intitled to. I guess it has still always bothered me not knowing for sure if she could have been getting benefit or not.

Moving here at 4pm.

OP, might want to contact Dave in these forums. He's 'in the know' about stuff like this---and if he doesn't, he can point you in the right direction.

Unfortunately he never got the offiical beige envelope from the VA telling him of his official rating.

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Because he never finished the process to determine his diabilites or the percentage he was disabled (they believed he would have got 80-100% is what we were orignially told ) but becaues they never finished the process he never recieved any benefits and they also said since the process was not finished that my mother would not recieve any either. They only thing that was ever recieved were some burial benefits. But nothing else.

If the veterans cause of death could be related to his service, your mother would have been eligible for DIC Death Indemnity Compensation and a higher amount on burial allowance.

I don't know wether it could have been considered service related or not. We do believe that the poor ciculation was due to the frost bite and some other issues from his time in Korea. IT would have had to be determined for sure as to wether the plaque build up on his veins was from the poor ciruclation or from the treamtent for cancer that he had several years before.

There is a chance it could have been a wrongful death, or malpractice suit from what we were told.

Bascially the VA hospital told my mom and sister that the sugery for the anurism and had gone fine but that they had tried to scrape some plaque away they had found. He didn't di eform the anurism or from the surgery for it..he died because his veins ripped when they did the scraping..which they were not initially suppose to do nor to my understanding authroized to do...in fact as they handed my mother the flag in a case and escorted her to her car they suggest my mother might want to consider consulting an attorney!

My sister and motehr were in a complete state of shock, both from my fathers death and from what was told to them. Part of me will never understand why they did no lok into things about the sugery further, however the other side of me understands. State of shock, loss of a loved one, not sure what to do, and no money to hire an attorney. And a big one would be that we are not the "sueing" kind of family.

It wasn't about $ to our family..it was about knowing that there were benefits they were or might have been entittled to that they never got...its just hard to see them struggle when you know there was somthing there that could have helped them.

I think a big thing to me is...I don't like pointing fingers, and I do strongly support the VA hospitals, as I am the one who suggest my father go to them, BUT I do feel that they may have made a mistake and I feel that they know they may have by someone there suggesting consulting an attorney...I guess that just bothers me, though I'm learning to accept it knowing I can't change it.

There is really probably no way or pursuing it anymore, as my fathers wish was to be buried in a Veternas Cemetary and a new one was due to open up in our area in a few months , Redding, CA so we had my father creamated to await burial there. So since there was never an autopsy done, to my understanding there is no way to prove if it was service related or any other reasons played part into it.

Dave...like I said its too late now that both my parents are gone...but had an autopsy or something been done that proved it was somehow service related she could have got other beneifts...do you know what would have happened if had been proved that the doctors indeed should not have done the scrapping on his veins that is what caused him to bleed to death? Would that have been some sort of determintation for some kind of benefits or would that be something entirly different i.e. wrongful death-malpractice?


Also do yo uor anyone else know if I can get access to my fathers medical records for the tests he was undergoing to see about being able to get VA bebefits?? To be honest mainly I want copies of his medical records with the therapist he was seeing to determine his PTSD. I know my father would not have minded up seeing these records as I went with him to every appointment while I was here, and then after I left my sister went to all of them with him. He idn't want to go alone so one of us always sat in with him during all of his medical appointments. There are so many privacy laws so I was not sure since it was VA related if we are able to get copies of those or if its like regular medical records where he had to sign a waver of release before he passed away for someone to be able to access or get a copy of them?? Any info you have to share would be so greatly appreciated...thanks

Dave..that is what I thought...however nothing was ever done to determine wether the cause of death was or could have been servie related.

You see he served way back in 1950-1953 In Korea..he did suffer some einjuries there and some pretty bad frost bite which we and the doctors b

that was wierd..i had tried to post my reply and it didn't go through right, so i redid it and the orginal one showed up and only part of the second one that i tried to do to replace the first..that was strange..must ahve been a connection problem...my apologies for that

DAVE B.; This the reason I suggest the 20% for every combat veteran that was involved for at least 6 months. He would have had better contact with the system. When President Lincoln said "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL" He made a huge mistake & it has cost a lot of veterans, even some, their lives, through SUICIDE. REX

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Also do yo uor anyone else know if I can get access to my fathers medical records for the tests he was undergoing to see about being able to get VA bebefits?? To be honest mainly I want copies of his medical records with the therapist he was seeing to determine his PTSD. I know my father would not have minded up seeing these records as I went with him to every appointment while I was here, and then after I left my sister went to all of them with him. He idn't want to go alone so one of us always sat in with him during all of his medical appointments. There are so many privacy laws so I was not sure since it was VA related if we are able to get copies of those or if its like regular medical records where he had to sign a waver of release before he passed away for someone to be able to access or get a copy of them?? Any info you have to share would be so greatly appreciated...thanks

Go to your veterans organization service officer, they will asssit you in obtaining records.