SSDI Benefits for Heart Issues
Does My Heart Condition Qualify for SSDI?
As I have told you before, the Social Security Administration issues a list of Injuries, Illnesses and Diseases which they consider when assessing your Disability claim. In order to qualify under this set of guidelines, you must have one of the listed injuries, illnesses or diseases, and the symptoms caused by that illness, injury or disease must be severe enough to cause you to be disabled. You, as the claimant have the initial burden of proving that you have one of the listed medical conditions. You also have the burden of proving that your symptoms are severe enough to cause you to be disabled.
You meet your burden of proving that you have one of the listed medical conditions, and that it is severe by providing medical documentation. The idea is that if you are that sick, you will be seeing a doctor, and your records will confirm the diagnosis and severity. On the other hand, if you claim to be disabled, but you have not seen a doctor, you are unlikely to meet your burden of proving that you are disabled.
Social Security Disability and Heart Issues
Today, I am dealing with a client who has cardiac (heart) issues. The client’s complains of symptoms including chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, and syncope (a kind of dizziness). The patient is seeing a doctor, because the symptoms are severe enough to make it impossible for the patient to do any of his former activities, including work. The other day, the patient had a heart test which found that the heart was not working very well. In fact, the percentage of blood the left side of his heart was pumping out was about 5%. Normal ejection from the left ventricle is 50% or more. So you can see the patient is very sick. We are pursuing the claim under Listing 4.02 Chronic Heart Failure. The specific listing is 4.02A! in that his left ventricular ejection fraction is below 30%. The claimant was turned down initially. I think this was because the records were not sufficient to prove the level of the ejection fraction. I am confident that we now have the proper records to the Social Security Administration and that the claim will soon be approved.
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