How Being An Emphysema Patient Can Help You Get SSD Benefits?

Research says that over 3 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Emphysema, and over 11 million US citizens have COPD. Emphysema is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — basically, a lung condition that leads to shortness of breath. Emphysema damages the air sacs in the lungs (alveoli). Alveoli are thin-walled, small, and fragile air sacs located in clusters at the end of the bronchial tubes deep inside the lungs. There are about 300 million alveoli in normal human lungs.

With the passage of time, the air sacs’ inner walls also weaken and get ripped apart, leading to larger air spaces inside instead of several small ones. This causes the lungs’ surface area to get reduced, and the amount of oxygen that reaches the bloodstream also gets reduced. The damaged alveoli also don’t work properly when you exhale, and the old air gets trapped within, leaving no room for fresh, oxygen-rich air to enter. Sometimes, patients with Emphysema also suffer from chronic bronchitis, which is a condition where the bronchial tubes that carry air to your lungs suffer from inflammation, leading to a persistent cough.

Symptoms Of Emphysema

Data shows that Emphysema is most common in men between 50 to 70 years. You can actually suffer from Emphysema for years without being aware of it. The primary reason for this is that the main symptom of Emphysema is shortness of breath, which is usually noticed over time, and until it interferes with your regular activities, you tend to ignore it completely. However, it would help if you did not ignore the condition when you notice the following symptoms:

• You’re short of breath to the point where you can’t climb a flight of stairs or can’t do light exercises
• Continuous fatigue
• Your fingernails or lips turn blue or grey due to exertion
• The feeling of not being able to get enough air
• You feel that you are not mentally alert
• Long term cough
• Mucus production for a long time
• Wheezing

Disability Benefits For Emphysema

However, suppose you have been unlucky enough to suffer from severe Emphysema. In that case, there’s actually a silver lining for you if you are a US citizen — you may be automatically approved for disability for Emphysema if: you meet the SSA’s (Social Security Administration) listing requirements for COPD, or if a doctor’s restrictions on what you can do limits you to do any kind of job.

For the first case, where the SSA determines whether you meet the COPD listing, you will be given a test that is designed to evaluate your lung function. It is called a spirometry test. Even if you have taken this test before, the SSA requires that you undergo a new exam administered by one of its doctors. It is called a consultative exam. The spirometry test monitors how much air is exchanged when the patient breathes and the rate at which he/she breathes. The spirometry test will specifically measure how much air the patient can force out in the first second of an exhalation (called FEV1).

For automatic approval for emphysema disability benefits, you’ll also have to provide the SSA with a chest x-ray or some other diagnostic imaging test (like a CT scan) that shows that you suffer from this particular condition. However, this is not all. There are other requirements that you need to meet to qualify for gaining disability benefits and only a Chicago SSD attorney can guide you in the right direction.

At James C. Miller, LTD we believe that social security can be one of the toughest things to deal with — even on a good day. When a person has already been compromised by health and financial issues, it can be a real frustration to deal with more problems to get disability benefits that you really deserve. And so, Jim Miller believes in representing people that apply for social security disability benefits. For 18 years, Jim Miller served as a vocational expert at social security disability hearings. Since 1998 he has worked as a non-attorney representative dealing with the SSA at all levels of the process, including hearings.

To serve a client effectively, Miller consults with clients to determine the merits of the application, advising him how to prepare for the hearing, he gathers medical evidence and communicates with health care providers about the case, he also ensures that the work-ability is accurately presented, and also presents arguments on the client’s behalf and cross-examine adverse witnesses to ensure that the case is properly understood. He is a member of the National Association of Disability Representatives and works in (but not limited to) the greater Chicago area.