Tom MacDonald's Story

I had the exact same thing happen with my right shoulder and it being declared frozen. There has to be a 2nd policy or hidden
policy that they follow in charlottetown at head office to determine awards. I say this because the doctor that first diagnosed my shoulder and
reccomended the % from the chart was a VRAB member previous to his becoming an MLA.

He along with the diagnosis from the specialist stated that my frozen shoulder along with the other periferal impairments to my right shoulder
would calculate on the table to be 25%.

My first application was outright denied...

My 2nd application was granted at 2%.

HERE IS WHERE YOUR GONNA LAUGH YOUR ASS OFF!!!!

My appeal of the 2% was granted and increased to 10% (YAY!!!! what a BS system).

Every diagnosis and medical document submitted proved conclusively that under the table I should have been recieving a minimum of 20%.

Didn't get it. 10% with a PME later that increased it to 11% OMG!!! (I gave up and for my efforts I aquired a mental condition which I now have to seek councelling for).

Now that I have your attention and you can see just how messed up the system is I will give you the ironic good news.

But first your probably itching to find out if I had the same time problem you did...

YES, but mine is collosally worse, I started this process in 1989... So GL with yours.


I had to go to the VRAB with 3 years of new medical documentation to prove my case and have it moved to a different part of the table which then granted me a 25% disability.

The problem with that is that VAC considered it a new condition and would not backdate the claim. And on top of it because I was put in the new income loss program and was not a new veteran, the 3.5 years it took them to give me the backdated money was clawed back by VAC. All 5500 dollars of it.

Doesn't seem like alot of money but if you consider that my pension when they did this was already almost 1000 dollars and you tack that amount in over 3.5 years the total sum of lost money to this egregious system is over 50000 dollars...

The shitty part of this whole deal is that I have also been stuck going nowhere in this income loss rehab system since april of 2006, it is now 2011, so calculate that into the mix and you can come to the grand total as of april of 2011 to be 65000 dollars stolen from me by these yumpty assholes

You can add to it the outright refusal to add my left shoulder bursitus to my pre-existing condition as a consequence by them. The first letter they sent me was an outright refusal which stated that the application was refused under the section which states that they have the right to refuse unwarranted claims for injury based on claim hunting. My right shoulder has been disabled since 1987 without medical treatment, 5 muscles on my right arm/shoulder were moved and re-attached to my right shoulderblade to keep my collarbone from sticking straight up and provide stability to my right side.

This operation was performed in 1989, until 2006 there was no active or long term medical treatment plan put in place to help with my right side. My left side took all the wheight, my specialist who is one of the top 5 in canada for sports and upper body injuries has stated I will never lift more than 25 lbs with both arms for the rest of my life. A recent report on my ability to function by a physio therapy clinic which was ordered by VAC, there physio therapy clinic!!! not mine, determined I am a 2 out of 5 for function. A 1 out of 5 is somebody who has no limbs!!!

Yet when with proper medical proof and documentation I appeal to the VRB that my left side has suffered and is still suffering for taking up all the slack for my right I am told by VRAB, there is no Medical documentation in the medical profession to support any condition which warrants a left side decision arrising from the disibility suffered by my right side.

DENIED!!!

These people act like good cop bad cop in the hearing one acting all I know I know how you feel and I understand, while the other asks questions like, show me where in your reports that it states your issue, and where did you work after you were released and what did you do, when did you work and for how long, what else did you do. Questions about things which have no direct bearing on the appeal at hand. Then they confrontational with you and your lawyer when you show it to them. And out right deny that it is right there in front of them. Not only that they deliberately removed documentation from their reports to state that information is not in there, yet when I get home there it is in black and white...


OMG!!!! here I go again.

Wait until I claim for a mental condition caused by dealing with this rediculous system and the way it feeds into my stressors causing my quality of life to suffer.
They sent me there now they are going to have to deal with the concequences of their actions.


Tom MacDonald


Tom MacDonald
Retired