Military Medics with PTSD

Military Medics with PTSD: Get the VA Compensation You Deserve 

Medics with PTSD span all branches of the military. Combat medics, hospital corpsmen, pararescuemen, and other frontline responders — your military job puts you at high risk for posttraumatic stress disorder. However, proving this to the VA and receiving the veteran’s compensation you deserve may be yet another battle. 

In this post, we discuss how to tackle challenges unique to military medical personnel when filing a PTSD disability claim in a way that will get the VA’s attention and prove your case.

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Broadly referred to as “medics” or “healthcare specialists,” deployed medical personnel generally include U.S. Army combat medics, Navy hospital corpsmen, combat life-saver-trained Army and Marines, and Air Force pararescuemen. They provide emergency medical care in the field in both combat and humanitarian situations, stopping preventable deaths and preparing injury victims for evacuation to a higher level of care. 

Military Medics Face Higher Risk of PTSD Stressors 

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Deployed medics are routinely exposed to traumatic events that incite mental fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and moral injury. Veteran medics with PTSD have fought alongside fellow soldiers. They witness first-hand injuries and death on the battlefield. Long-term negative consequences of such exposure frequently include PTSD. 

The Rugged Practice of Battlefield Medicine

Medical care in combat is prehospital battlefield care. The basis for military prehospital medical providers at all levels is called Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC). This care falls into three scenarios, and many challenges must be met.   

1. Care Under Fire (CUF): This happens at the point of injury while the medic and wounded soldier are still under enemy fire. Medical equipment is confined to whatever is in the medic’s bag. 
2. Tactical Field Care (TFC): TFC takes over once the medic and patient are no longer under fire. Medical equipment is still limited, and the time to evacuate to the combat support hospital or mobile surgical team may vary greatly.
3. Tactical Evacuation Care (TEC): Casualties are now moved from the point of injury to a more secure location with more advanced medical care. The tactical situation and hostile threats to evacuation platforms are often precarious and may differ vastly from one casualty to another.

Medics with PTSD Have Likely Endured both Combat and Medical Stressors 

Medical stressors can weigh more heavily on military medics than combat stressors. Recent studies show how medical duty stressors appear to have more impact on military medical personnel than combat experiences, with approximately 5–10% of deployed medical personnel likely to be at risk for clinically significant levels of PTSD. 

The fate of the injured often lies in a medic’s hands because their actions can be the determining factor in ensuring the survival of the wounded. This is no small matter. 

These medics feel a strong personal responsibility for the well-being of their injured patients. Witnessing the loss of life or horrendous injury or the inability to manage to save a life or limb can also trigger a unique form of moral trauma because they have failed to fulfill their professional purpose. Their experience may be intensified because of the extreme distress and fearful situations.

Top 3 Reasons Why VA May Reject Disability Claims from Medics with PTSD

You may have witnessed atrocities and suffered trauma multiple times in your role as a military medic, yet the VA has denied your disability claim based on posttraumatic stress disorder. This may be due to the VA’s stance on several components, including:

1. A possible lack of supporting evidence regarding the patients you treated. 
2. Service members, including medical specialists, often go without medical help until symptoms are severe, sometimes years later. Consequently, there is frequently a lack of military service records concerning your PTSD stressor, such as what trauma you experienced and the location. 
3. And if you were not engaged in combat, the VA is not compelled to accept your own account of a medical or other stressor that led to PTSD based on your testimony alone.

Proving PTSD in Military Medic’s VA Disability Claims 

All PTSD claims must show the following: 

• A current diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder;
• A corroborated in-service stressor  (unless you are a combat veteran and unless your stressor is based upon a fear of hostile attack in a combat theater);
• A medical nexus that links your PTSD diagnosis to the in-service stressor.

Deployed medics with PTSD symptoms may or may not have engaged in combat. Their role as medics, corpsmen, pararescuemen, or life-saver-trained marines may also have changed during their active duty.

Because of these and other factors, we consider many types of supporting evidence when proving a stressor when the trauma occurred during a non-combat type situation. 

How Marc Whitehead & Associates Can Help

Unfortunately, the VA can deny claims if you omit essential facts or use the wrong form. Our veterans’ attorneys will meticulously organize and develop your claim, or appeal your denied claim based on facts and supporting documentation, ensuring you avoid ever-present pitfalls. 

How Our Veterans’ Attorneys Help Medics with PTSD Get Fair Ratings and Maximum Benefits:

1. Locate missing medical records that support your diagnosis and your condition’s severity. 
2. If military service records are incomplete, we may be able to help demonstrate the chronology of your military occupation throughout your service.
3. Help you demonstrate “continuity of symptomatology.” This policy refers to situations in which your PTSD most likely manifested during service but was not diagnosed explicitly during that time.  [Link to post: VA Compensation Claims: What Is Continuity of Symptomatology? ]
4. Locate supporting evidence for the stressor’s occurrence. This could be a news article, correspondence, a picture, an obituary, or online public records about the event. We bridge the gaps by piecing together facts consistent with your service’s location, time, and circumstances that are sufficient to verify a stressor, whether you were on the battlefield, in a mobile surgical unit, or in a hospital setting treating combat-related injuries. We can help you search out these and other records that may help verify that your PTSD stressor occurred.  
5. Prepare lay statements (a.k.a. buddy statements) to give a witness account of the stressor event. Buddy statements written by a fellow service member can prove to be a tremendous asset in supporting the in-service stressor. Buddy statements must be consistent with the time, place, and circumstances of the service of both the veteran and the buddy. Factual statements by family, friends, employers, or caregivers can support your case by adding context on how your PTSD affects your life every day, on every level. [Link to post:  How do I Write a Lay Statement for the VA?]
6. Prepare a strong nexus letter from a qualified medical professional. [Link to post:  How Do I Get a VA Nexus Letter?]

Corpsmen and Medics with PTSD: You need a VA-accredited attorney you can trust.

Regrettably, the VA sometimes denies valid applications from veterans seeking disability benefits for PTSD. Perhaps you’ve been denied many times. We know this is not right, and it spurs us to fight with all our might on these cases.

To prevail over the VA and win your appeal, you should be represented by an attorney who knows veterans disability law and has a proven track record at the Veterans Court. Call today for a free legal consultation, and begin working with experienced PTSD attorneys you can trust.

Read more about military jobs with High Rates of PTSD.