subject: Heart Attacks and Disability Payments: How It Can Affect You [print this page] Heart Attacks and Disability Payments: How It Can Affect You
A heart attack is a disruption of blood flow and causes heart damage. Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in men and women worldwide and nearly one million people have a heart attack each year. Around 40% of those people die, with percentage rates of deaths increasing on a yearly basis. Symptoms in men may include chest pain or pressure, nausea, pain in the jaw area or left arm, shortness of breath, fainting and sudden death. Symptoms in women may include back pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and faintness. Symptoms for women are much more complicated and not as clear to determine if they have possibly had a heart attack. Some women have had several heart attacks in their life and never known it because they did not realize the symptoms. This is why it is more complicated and harder for women to know whether or not they are having a heart attack or not.
Treatment for heart attacks can be any of the following: stent placement, angioplasties, oxygen replacement, medications, electrical stimulators and surgical interventions such as bypass surgery. Bypass surgery is usually a doctor's last resort. You are looking at the possibility of surgery if you have a lot of blockages of blood flow to your heart. If you have several blockages and do not have surgery, you can possibly die. When it comes to heart attacks, the Social Security Administration does not really focus on your diagnosis but focuses more on the functionality restrictions that you have after the attack. Having a heart attack can leave you with serious impairments but does not always disable you.
Your age plays a big factor in applying for disability benefits and can work in your favor. Past work experience is the other important role in applying for disability benefits. If you did hard manual labor and are not allowed to return to that type of work, you may be simply released to go back to work with lighter duties or be approved for disability benefits. If you work in an office with light clerical work, you may be released to go back to work or simply approved for benefits as well. This is why being approved simply relies on your functionality restrictions.
If you are ever denied, your best route to take is to hire a disability lawyer. Most people with attorneys win their case, having a 40-60% success rate. If you apply and are denied, you can apply again. However, if you don't have an attorney, your chances of getting approved after already being denied are slim to none. You would need to have better evidence to prove you meet the eligible requirements better than you did the time before. Even then, you can still get rejected once again. The guidelines for heart impairments can be found in the Social Security Administration's manual. It may be a good idea to read this manual before applying for benefits or hiring a social security disability attorney.
