failed esa with atos medical

hmsribble

i suffer from server astma been in icu a few times, last time i was resuttated and spent 2 weeks in ICU in hospital 18 days before my medical. the first medical was stopped because of my breathing was that poor and they sent me home by taxi and sent a doctor to see if i was okay. they still called me back and the same doctor has declared me fit who sent me home. i feel like taking pills to end it. As any one with bad astma will know its a slow death fighting to breathe. God what are u suppose to do i am on 2 nebulizes every day for the rest of my life and use 200 doses of ventlin per week. i try welfare rights on monday but if i fail appeal i will take my own life, as i told doctors in icu i can not survive nor do i want to another bad attack.
sorry for seeming so depress i will not do any thing stupid at the moment.

robpw2

firstly calm down , take some time to think and don't get yourself worked up over something which at present you can do nothing about .Book an appointment with the cab and take some time to fill out your appeal with them and then again just relax untill you hear back

whitelabel

my first thoughts are just stop and wait a minute

have you got any friends or family you can talk to and help you with this ?

if not try https://www.smaritans.org they are a friendly bunch

Phone us
UK: 08457 90 90 90*
ROI: 1850 60 90 90*
International
Email us
jo@samaritans.org


Citizens advice can offer help and support with your appeal.
When you appeal youll also get a list of support agencies who can offer support other than the CAB depending on yoru location, so your not alone in this.

also see your GP, can any other meds be adjusted to make things a bit easier for you.

While things may seem at there worst, believe me, they can always be so, so in other words just try and focus on the smallest positive thing you can find each day, be it the sun, a butterfly or a rainbow, and take each day at time.
trust me, you'll get through it.

molliemookie

Do you not have a nebuliser at home?

FTW

hmsribble wrote: »

i suffer from server astma been in icu a few times, last time i was resuttated and spent 2 weeks in ICU in hospital 18 days before my medical. the first medical was stopped because of my breathing was that poor and they sent me home by taxi and sent a doctor to see if i was okay. they still called me back and the same doctor has declared me fit who sent me home. i feel like taking pills to end it. As any one with bad astma will know its a slow death fighting to breathe. God what are u suppose to do i am on 2 nebulizes every day for the rest of my life and use 200 doses of ventlin per week. i try welfare rights on monday but if i fail appeal i will take my own life, as i told doctors in icu i can not survive nor do i want to another bad attack.
sorry for seeming so depress i will not do any thing stupid at the moment.

I know it's difficult, but try not to think that way - you are worth a lot more than pig-headed government protocol.

As others have said, Welfare rights and the Citizens Advice Bureau are good places to start.

But I'd also recommend talking to your GPs/specialists and explain what's happened. If you feel as though you're getting no joy from them, there's always other doctors/specialists you can see.

If you're going to appeal, you'll need as much medical evidence as you can get (your GP will be able to help on that one).

You'll also need to get a copy of the report that recommended you as fit, and look through it to see what faults/contradictions are contained on it (and you'll probably find a good deal many).

Due to the fact that the number of appeals have shot up, it'll take months to get to the tribunal stage, but if you do get to the tribunal stage and win, I'd also recommend logging a GMC complaint against the 'doctor' who recommended you fit - because at the very least, he should be struck off for that.

Muttleythefrog

hmsribble wrote: »

i suffer from server astma been in icu a few times, last time i was resuttated and spent 2 weeks in ICU in hospital 18 days before my medical. the first medical was stopped because of my breathing was that poor and they sent me home by taxi and sent a doctor to see if i was okay. they still called me back and the same doctor has declared me fit who sent me home. i feel like taking pills to end it. As any one with bad astma will know its a slow death fighting to breathe. God what are u suppose to do i am on 2 nebulizes every day for the rest of my life and use 200 doses of ventlin per week. i try welfare rights on monday but if i fail appeal i will take my own life, as i told doctors in icu i can not survive nor do i want to another bad attack.
sorry for seeming so depress i will not do any thing stupid at the moment.

Try not to panic. You are far from alone in having a WCA decision that seems unbelievable. There are people on these threads alone who understand that the WCA can go horribly wrong... be terribly done.

Welfare rights is a good idea. They should hopefully help with appeal. If on monday you don't get chance to get ball rolling with them because they arrange a future appointment to discuss your case then there is one thing you can do in the meantime. Phone the DWP at the number at top of letter and state that you want a written Statement of Reasons for their decision and a copy of the ATOS medical report and any other evidence they used. These things will be needed to establish the basis of appeal. It might be helpful if you can tell your GP or similar that this situation has arisen and that you may require them to help you evidentially. Hopefully with welfare rights they may be able to establish that extra evidence to help your case. You'll have a few weeks (4 plus 2 if requesting SOR probably) to make intention to appeal known to DWP and hopefully long before that you'll have welfare rights in position to do that for you.

When you do visit welfare rights take any evidence you can that shows your medical situation or similar... even appointment letters like for hospital could have use to them.

Almost half of those people appealing are overturning the decision. It is advised you opt for an oral hearing (i.e. where you or a representative or both attend in person) in appeal come that time to increase your chances of success.

You may not reach appeal.. there is some chance.. especially if additional evidence is forthcoming that the DWP may change their decision in automatic reconsideration (done prior to sending papers to tribunals service for appeal).

If worst comes to worst... given there are notable delays for appeals to be heard then you may be able to re-apply immediately after tribunal as the 6 month re-applying cooling period could well have passed.

Get medical certificates (sick notes) to continue covering your 'unable to work' status as you should be able to get the assessment rate ESA whilst waiting for appeal... can send it/them in probably at time of appealing and thereafter.

Good luck.

Morglin

hmsribble wrote: »

i suffer from server astma been in icu a few times, last time i was resuttated and spent 2 weeks in ICU in hospital 18 days before my medical. the first medical was stopped because of my breathing was that poor and they sent me home by taxi and sent a doctor to see if i was okay. they still called me back and the same doctor has declared me fit who sent me home. i feel like taking pills to end it. As any one with bad astma will know its a slow death fighting to breathe. God what are u suppose to do i am on 2 nebulizes every day for the rest of my life and use 200 doses of ventlin per week. i try welfare rights on monday but if i fail appeal i will take my own life, as i told doctors in icu i can not survive nor do i want to another bad attack.
sorry for seeming so depress i will not do any thing stupid at the moment.

Calm down! - between 40% and 80% of ATOS 'assessment' decisions are now being overturned at appeal.

Contact the Welfare Rights Worker, get a GL24 (contact the office on the rejection letter), and appeal.

If you have to go to tribunal, make sure you attend, in person. You can take your rights worker (if she can attend), or you can take a friend/support. It's all very relaxed, and you'll be given every chance to state your case.

However, many decisions are being overturned before it gets to this stage.

Lin

iluvmarmite

Sorry if this sounds rather harsh but you say if you fail your appeal you will take your own live as you cannot survive or want another attack, but getting ESA will not stop your attacks so why would you take your own life if you failed an appeal? Is it because you believe as you failed a medical they dont believe you are as ill as you are? From what I have read on these boards its standard practice to fail an ATOS medical first time no matter how disabled or ill you are so you arent on your own there. You have to think positive as its not over yet and you could win the appeal, You should have been given stronger medication to help you, a neb to take at home etc, there are also lots of organisations around that will listen to you and help you through.

molliemookie

I used to work with a young lady (early 20's) who had severe asthma. She had a portable nebuliser which she brought to work everyday. She used to have to use it during her lunch break and again later if she was doing a full shift.

She swore that swimming daily helped to strengthen the muscles around her lungs and that this was just one of the exercises she had been told to do as often as was possible.

Have they not given you any exercises to do that will help improve your asthma? If not then could you not ask for some, would be much better than keep having severe asthma attacks.

It would also rid you of the thoughtless, uncaring ATOS people.

I'm in the WRAG but I'm constantly begging the doctors to find some help for me rather than just popping pills. I swear if I didn't have to deal with ATOS, JC and now a work programme I'd recover sooner. The sooner I am well the sooner I can get them off my back.

Good luck

hmsribble

thanks every one i have calmed down, will see CAB monday, yes i do have a nebuliser at home,have to use it twice a day for rest of my life, the hospital has put me on stronger meds since medical.if these have no effect thay talking about fitting a tube in my stomach and have to inject my self in an attack. ????? only a doctor could explain why.

but why i was so down the atos said i could walk 200 meters when i had already informed them i can only walk less than 100. Which is why i use 1 ventlin inhaler a week which works out at 28 times a day.
why do atos come out with a clear lie.

people ask why concider taking ur own life, i know i can not walk to bus stop to go to job center, as unless u experiance a acute attack u don,t know how scary it is you pray it to b over in seconds. walking or any excussion leads to a attack.

sorry about spelling mistakes but i seem to lose a bit each time i spend time in icu.

but thanks again every one

cit_k

Dont worry even if you do fail the appeal, there is still a possiblity to explore appealing that decision if they made an error in law.

Also, as it takes a long time for an appeal to be heard, ie more than 6 months, even if you do fail, you should be able to just reclaim ESA again [because you have to wait 6 months after they first told you that you failed], so you wont be left high and dry.

Take the time you have waiting for the appeal to follow the advice in the thread, and dont worry, the appeal people are much more professional than the atos assessors usually are in my opinion.

Its also common for ATOS to write complete lies on medical report, in fact every medical report I have had from them has been wildly innacurate, so dont worry about that, its just par for the course for many people.