Articles Posted in Disabling Conditions

For people suffering from sickle cell disease, disabilities materialize in various ways including periods of pain that affect their bones, muscles, organs or the nervous system. This renders many sickle cell victims unable to work and live a normal, functioning life.

Sickle cell disability creates financial hardships when people afflicted with the disease are forced to give up their jobs. Financial distress may be relieved by filing claims with the Social Security Disability program, and in some cases through an employer’s group insurance plan or a private disability insurance policy.

If you have filed a disability claim to any of these programs or to your disability insurance company and your claim was wrongly denied, we can help. Our firm has represented thousands of disabled individuals from coast to coast, and we know what it takes to get a favorable outcome.

Millions of Americans are affected by a Seizure disorder. The symptoms of seizure disorders very greatly from individual to individual, depending on the underlying cause of the seizures. In many cases, symptoms of seizure disorders are so severe that the person afflicted with the condition is unable to work. Long-term disability insurance companies are particularly indifferent to people with seizure disorders. This indifference seems to stem from their belief that most people with seizure disorders can hold down a job and provide for themselves. This often results in the denial of claims for people with seizure disorders.

If you are filed a long-term disability claim due to your seizure disorder and it has been denied, call us. We take on the big insurance companies and fight for the benefits you deserve.

How Seizures Can Disrupt a Person’s Abilities

Schizophrenia is a terrible disease that strikes many people in their late teens and early 20s. Schizophrenia can make it impossible for someone to have normal relationships and find gainful employment. You or a loved one may have worked for a few years prior to being diagnosed with schizophrenia. During that time, you may have paid into a long-term disability insurance plan that was intended to provide for your needs if you were to become disabled. Now schizophrenia has rendered you unable to work and you have filed a claim with your long-term disability insurance carrier, only for it to be denied.

If this is happened to you, or someone you love, don’t be a victim of the insurance company. If your long-term disability claim due to schizophrenia has been denied, call us. We won’t let the insurance company push you around. We fight for our clients until they get the benefits they deserve.

About Schizophrenia Disability

Post-traumatic stress disorder disability affects millions of Americans, both veteran and civilian. PTSD can affect anyone who has lived through or witnessed a traumatic event such as:

• The horrors of war and combat
• Terrorist attacks, such as the 9/11 World Trade Center attack
• A disaster such as a riot, fire, or hurricane
• Sexual assault
• Domestic violence
• Surviving a catastrophic injury
• Violent crime such as shootings or murder

PTSD Symptoms

PTSD is a type of severe anxiety disorder. Research has indicated that PTSD can actually damage the brain, where stress can cause the brain to atrophy as well as result in neural death of some areas of the brain.

Even if your doctors have diagnosed you as having Parkinson’s disease, you still may be challenged by the insurance company. Insurers may send you endless notices that they need more time, or continually request more information, hoping you will give up. They may deny your long-term disability insurance benefits altogether.

Most insurance companies hire their own doctors to review patients’ claims without ever meeting the claimant or performing an examination. Any small piece of evidence that supports denying the claim, such as the opinion of an in-house doctor, becomes ammunition for open-ended clauses in the policy that would support a denial of the claim.

Insurance companies may also charge that there is not enough evidence to support a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease disability and deny the claim on the basis that you are able to return to work.

Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers represents individuals whose long term disability claims for Meniere’s disease disability have been denied. We are familiar with the way insurance companies consider these claims. We can help you prove to your insurance provider (and the court) that you truly are dealing with an issue that prevents you from working

By their very nature, these claims are difficult to prove. Due to the intermittent aspects of the disease, insurers rarely consider this to be a truly disabling condition. Without a rock-solid claim, insurers can dismiss Meniere’s disease because it is “temporary” and not a long term disability.

At the same time, most claims examiners have no experience with Meniere’s disease, and do not understand its disabling consequences.

Paralysis is the loss or deterioration of motor function in one or more muscle groups. Paralysis victims can no longer voluntarily control body movements. If you suffer from paralysis, it likely has made a devastating impact on your life, including your ability to hold down a job.

Paralysis is often the result of spinal cord injuries. Disease and other conditions such as stroke may also impair neuromuscular function. Advanced forms of paralysis include:

• Paraplegia: Weakness or paralysis of both legs
• Quadriplegia: Weakness or paralysis of both arms and both legs. Due to the severity of quadriplegia, paraplegia and other paralytic conditions, many paralysis victims require permanent total disability.

Causes

At the center of the retina is a small area called the macula. It is comprised of light-sensitive tissue bordering the back of the eye. It is the macula that is gives us detailed, exact vision, enabling us to read, see color, perform detailed work, recognize a face and see faraway objects.

Edema means there is swelling caused by fluid retention.

Macular edema is like a blister of excess fluid in the macula. It occurs when blood vessels in the retina are leaking fluids, causing swelling of the retina. The macula cannot work correctly when it is swollen. Loss of vision may range from mild to severe. The worse the swelling, the more disabling the visual distortion becomes.

What is Osteoarthritis?

Sometimes called degenerative joint disease or degenerative arthritis, osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic condition of the joints, affecting approximately 27 million Americans. OA can affect any joint, but it occurs most often in knees, hips, lower back and neck, small joints of the fingers and the bases of the thumb and big toe.

In normal joints, a firm, rubbery material called cartilage covers the end of each bone. Cartilage provides a smooth, gliding surface for joint motion and acts as a cushion between the bones. In OA, the cartilage breaks down, causing pain, swelling and problems moving the joint. As OA worsens over time, bones may break down and develop growths called spurs. Bits of bone or cartilage may chip off and float around in the joint. In the body, an inflammatory process occurs and cytokines (proteins) and enzymes develop that further damage the cartilage. In the final stages of OA, the cartilage wears away and bone rubs against bone leading to joint damage and more pain.

Insurers are largely reluctant to approve disability claims for eye impairments, even macular degeneration. They are likely to “conclude” that your claim does not adequately support limitations that prevent you from being able to continue in your own occupation or engage in any gainful employment.

You must fully develop your case to prove how poor your central acuity or peripheral vision is. We can help you demonstrate in great detail how your loss of vision limits your ability to work.

Our law firm will ensure that you have sufficient medical records, appropriate and essential input from your ophthalmologist, vocational experts and other specialists, and proof of functional limitations to substantiate your macular degeneration disability.