I applied for SSI for my daughter back in May of this year. She was diagnosed in 2000 with ADHD and 2001 with bipolar. She also has learning disabilities. She is 7 years old and in first grade. She was held back twice in kindergarden and this is her first year of 1st grade and now the counselors at her school want to put her in special education classes.
We think that a severe carbon monoxide leak that we had in an apartment we were living in the whole time I was pregnant might have caused some real serious damage. Each time the apartment maintenance said they fixed the problem leak in our stove and furnace. When our gas company came out each time to turn it back on and check it the leak was always worse than the time before. Just wondering if anyone has any advice to if that could have caused her damage. She had a lung infection when she was born and was in NICU for 3 weeks before she came home. But as for the SSI, they have sent her to a psychiatrist of their choice because they said they needed more information to give a fair decision on her case. I have not heard anything back from them yet.
Is there a good chance that she will be approved for SSI? How long does it normally take to be approved and start getting checks for her? We are going to send her to private school with her money for children with developmental disabilities. She is in public school now and they could care less about her education. By the way I live in Oklahoma.
Also can anyone tell me what I can do about he carbon monoxide leak? She is 7 now and the leak started while I was pregnant with her but my mother in law has been researching effects of carbon monoxide poisoning and it could have affected her while she was still inside me and caused some of her problem. Could I possibly sue the gas company or the apartments? It has been 7 years too, is it too late?
Thanks for reading my long post, I hope to hear from some of you.

hi, i am sorry to hear about your daughter's problems. i think you should definitely consult a lawyer on this. i am sure there are many good law firms out there that give free consultation and can probably get alot of money for your daughter. i would also get in touch with a social worker, i know they can be very helpful. good luck!

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"In a world without fences, who needs GATES"

--linux123

SS disability can take quite awile to get approved for. We've had family members, (who couldn't even speak (literally) never mind feed themselves, and we waited I beleive it was almost 6 months for the approval to finally go through. I've known others with kids who hadd ADHD, & ADD, who's kids were approved on an average of 2 to 3 months. Each case is different, if you gave them medical records, school records, and anything elso they needed usually after their docs do their own exams, it just amatter of them getting any test results back, reviewing the history info you turned in, and in most cases (at least all I've witnessed it gets approved. They just want to make sure all their i's are dotted & t's are crossed.
Good luck, it'll probably be fine.

I am going through the same process ,except I live in CA. I'am not sure about your states laws but I have been denied again and again I am now at the admin law judge hearing point .It was on the 13 th I represented myself.I focused on federal rules and reg. for social security and definitions of disabled ect.anything federal override a state law even if state is more restrictive on qualifying,it is near impossible to get ca to approve a diagnosis of adhd .I think you should look up Idea and the depart. of ed american with disabilities act,www.ldanatl.org ,go to www.chadd.org (http://www.chadd.org) then links