Is there anything you can do to speed up process in appeal court? My husband had 5 hip surgeries, has hip a prostesis, and is waiting for a liver transplant. We filed in 2005. We have been turned down for SSI because I work. But this last hearing for ssd just blew me away. I can not believe the judge denied him. It has been at the appeal office since November. Isn't there any way I can help with something! I have an attorney. They are sending in information as it is updated such as the hospital stays, but I still havn't heard anything. I just don't understand why I can't get any help. My whole check is going to dr bills trying to get him on the transplant list. I have not received a penny from anyone.

Hi, yes maybe.You can contact your local congressman that is in your district and ask for support in his claim process, most of these people have pull in the system,mine was very understanding and even gave me a few phone calls to check in on me and he did indeed try to speed up the process.There is also what is called dire need meaning you can send copies of foreclosure notices, utility bills in the process of being shut off, being behind in rent payments ect... to Social Security, I've tried both but neither has helped me but you never know in the end at the hearing because I'm sure all of it is in my records.

does he already have SSD?he should be able to qualify for the for many reasons.i know it really sucks,but there is a very set list and limit of the assets you can only have when trying to qualify for SSI(you basically have to be at the poverty level to actually qualify for SSI),there is no limit when you are on SSD tho.just a suggestion if you have not yet gone this route.i do wish you lots of luck with everything.my youngest son went thru liver failure at age 12 and amazingly got his miracle JUST in time.i hope the same happens before that point for your hubby.Marcia

no. he was denied ssd. it's at the appeal office now. he hasn't had any kind of income since october 2005. i can't seem to get help from no where. i just don't understand how the judge could think he could work. he's in a hospital bed now.

That's just not right.
I would contact my local congressman or senator and maybe even your local news.

i agree with the above,you need some extra 'pull" here.thats just ridiculous,really.one thing here i do need to ask is if YOU personally have obtained all of his records yourself for your use and actually gone thru them to just see what is and isn't there that should be?unfortunetly,one HUGE thing i found out AFTER being denied my first go round for SSD is my medical records were not what i thought thery were.there were actual Dx missing on conditions my docs actually had really Dxed me with and a very important document(the op notes from the monitoring doc during my spinal cord surgery)that was not even in my central medical file at the hosp where i had my surgery done.this one document was desperately needed since this was the one that had the documentation of the nerve damage/loss during my surgery.for some reason this was not there(i had to actually track this down myself and personally send it to ssd).

i didn't have a freaking clue til i requested ALL my medical records from every doc and every hosp that had seen me.you REALLY need to obtain every single document from every doc and the hospitals and go thru them yourself just to really see what is actually IN the records.i can almost guarentee you that at least one or two things are just not right in them.it just happens, way too much actually.you just need to see what ssd actually based their determination on.but you DO also need to take the advice from the above poster and get anyone who is just way up there to help you work this out.this IS part of what we pay our congress people and anyone else who 'works for US" to do.be there when we need some help.they DO have people who are there for this kind of thing,just contact your congress person or state rep.i do wish you lots of luck with this and hope things will work out for you and your hubby.but get those records if you have not already done so.you just really need to see them.please keep us posted.marcia

i have wrote to 2 congressman and 1 senator. 2 answered me back with the routine letter that i've read about and sent in an 'inquiry'. seems like the lawyer should be making sure that the paper work is okay... they get a pretty big chunk of the money. i know they have been sending in updates from the hospitals. the university said it was going to be 500,000 for a liver transplant. that should show the need for help. i have been making payments to the hospital so i'm not backed up on bills, but it's been really hard paying for everything with no help. i was so hoping that the appeal office would see the judge made a terrible mistake and overturn it. it's been since november... how long will it take? if they don't overturn it, federal court is next. i'm sure that will be several years of fighting. this is so unfair.

the problem here with leaving everything up to the lawyer is that he does not really know your/your hubbys true medical status like you do,you know what i mean?he cannot possibly know if what is even in(or unfortuently not even in)your hubbys medical records is even accurate,but you and your hubby can.i did hire a lawyer for the recon phase too but i still had to make certain that ALL of the more vital records were there.i also wrote ssd letters too.just make certain to copy everything that you actually send into ssd.i didn't at first and there were many times where i wished i had,so i started copying everything that i sent them from that point on.

i really am sorry you are in this situation.i do think ssi is kind of an impossibility for you becasue of income and any resources or assets you have,BUT i really don't understand either just why they would deny him SSD.that really is cruel to do to someone in his posistion.i do know that when someone is actually in kidney failure,they do act pretty quickly so the liver failure thing really just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.espescially when in kidney failure,you DO at least have dialysis to help you but there just is not anything like that availiable for liver failure.believe me,my son went thru liver failure and transplant almost 8 years ago.

just what is actually causing your hubbys liver failure to occur,or what has he been Dxed with?have you been hooked up with anyone from the actual transplant center at the hospital where he is going to have that Tx done yet?the thing is,once you have been,you get assigned a type of social worker whos only job is to try and help you get thru this.they help with suggestions for funding,ways to pay for your meds, and any other issues that can arise from just being in liver failure.it just could be one help option for you.i really do wish i could be of more help to you.i just wouldn't give up here and keep pushing things til you get what you need.it can be very frustating at times.ya just gotta be persistant and hopefully things will work out for you.

just make darn sure you get all his records for yourself anf go thru them,seriously.these could be a potential issue,believe me.one big thing i also found out from the medical records person at the stupid hospital i was trying to get that documant from is that he told me right out that the medical records that "I" got actually contained like ten more pages than what was actually given to SSD.i have no idea just why that occured but that is what he shared with me when i was requesting further documents when trying to find that very crucial one.go figure.just never ever 'assume' anything when going thru this process.your lawyer can help you with some of this stuff but the majority unfortunetly lands on our shoulders.i am just thankful that i bothered to check.hang in there hon and please let me know how things are going.Marcia

yes. we have been to the clinic. at this clinic they do the transplant evaluation in 3 appointments. the first one was jan 31, next in april, then in june. then they will tell us if he is eligible for the transplant list. the social worker said there wasn't much help to offer unless i made less than 1,025 month. they did give us papers about having fund raisers, etc. kinda hard to do when i have to work plus have a son and a sick husband.
in my opinion the judge just didn't like my husband. what else could it have been. he made a few remarks about him that were uncalled for. i don't know why he denied him really, but it was a terrible mistake.
as for the other question... he contracted hep c after a bad wreck in the late80's, from a blood transfusion done then. he has also drank beer for about 20 years. i guess it is the combination of both that caused the cirrohis. he has not drank since June last year and the hep c is inactive, he was treated for that around 2000. he also has had 5 hip surgeries, starting back in the 80's from the wreck. has a hip prostesis. the prostesis got displaced in 2005 and that is when he filed for ssd. dumb judge huh?
guess i need to write to the appeal office... i thought my lawyer sending the papers from the clinic to them would be enough. i never knew that our system was so screwed up!
thanks for the advice.

Finally got approved. They approved him starting December 2006. They would not approve the period of Oct 2005 thru November 2006 because they said the r.arthritus and hip replacement was not qualified. they approved the cirrhosis but not until dec 2006 because that is when it got real bad. i don't agree with that but am too tired of fighting these people. i will just have to be happy with what we get.

Congratulations on the approval and I think it is terrible that it took as long as it did for your husband. You both have my prayers for his hopeful liver transplant and recovery. My twin sister had Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion she received after giving birth to her second daughter back in the 80's. Unfortunately she passed away 3 years ago from another condition but there are so many people that have this disease due to the inadequate testing done at that time. I also have a sister-in-law who has it due to the same reason and she will probably be put on the transplant list in the near future.

I am glad that this one battle is over for you and your husband.

Take care
Linda:angel:

so glad you FINALLY got approved. SSD did the very same thing to me too. becasue i was not "considered" to actually be disabled when they denied me the first go round,which was stupid since everything was still the same,and actually just a bit worse as the date i was approved,it was just that one document that was missing,that was it. but they only went back to that date of denial,not the two years before that when i 'should' have gotten my back pay to. my lawyer told me i could fight it,but i too was too wiped out after all that to even go there and was also just happy to have even gotten it. she also told me that if i ened up having a bad judge,he could overturn that first approval decision and actually take it all away if things didn;t go in my favor,so i just left well enough alone and felt grateful to even have gotten it at all ya know?

i do hope things go well for you both.good luck.Marcia

iluv, all you can do is keep sending letters of how this is affecting hubby and such and any new information that is relevant to the case. And even if you work he should qualify i'm sure on his own case because my dad and his wife both get disability but i know that because he got the higher amonunt it lowered heres. I don't think it make alot of sense just keep sending info updated as much as possible and write letters how this is effecting him and the family!
Monkey