There are two ways to establish service-connection for disabilities that are related to service. The first is called a temporal service connection. Temporal service connections focus on the timing of the disability not the cause of it. If for example a marine is serving and develops cancer that he’s genetically predispositioned to, this would be an example of a temporal service-connected disability. Certain illnesses such as bipolar disorder we’re unsure of why they happen, and if they are actually service related. But if symptoms manifest themselves during service the condition can be deemed service related.
The second way to establish service connection is the more common of the two. A causal service-connected disability is a disability that is directly related to a vets service. An example would be a physical injury or accident while in service or a psychological trauma or toxic exposure. Your disability doesn’t need to occur immediately it can occur months or even years later. An example of this would be people that were exposed to agent orange in Vietnam, symptoms didn’t manifest until months or even years later, however vets are able to obtain a high disability rating.
We understand that the claims process can be confusing; if you have any questions about your claims process Gumps V.A. Comp. Services would be more than happy to help answer them. Please give us a call at (888) 854 8677 or book an appointment with an accredited agent here.