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Facts about Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy and Filing for DisabilityHow to prove you are disabled and win disability benefits 1. Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is the most severe disorder in the group of disorder that make up muscular dystrophy. Muscular dystrophy causes damage to muscle fibers and makes the muscles progressively weaker. 2. Muscular dystrophy disorders in general cause weakness, coordination problems and loss of mobility that becomes progressively worse over time. 3. Duchenne's muscular dystrophy occurs in boys and is the most common type of muscular dystrophy occurring in children. It typically develops after two years old but before the age of three. Due to the progressive degeneration of the disease, most children are unable to walk by the time they are teenagers. 4. Symptoms of duchenne's muscular dystrophy involve large calf muscles that cause weakness in the lower legs, leading to falls, trouble running and jumping, walking with a waddling motion, and difficulty changing position from laying and sitting to standing. It may also include mild mental retardation. 5. The life expectancy for a child with duchenne's muscular dystrophy is before age 35, but usually by the 20s. Cause of death is most often related to complications from muscle weakness involving the respiratory system or heart. 6. Muscular dystrophy is caused by a genetic mutation that is inherited through family lines. Research has shown that the protein dystrophin, responsible for contributing to muscle development and strength, is associated with this mutation. 7. Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is inherited through the mother's genes, called X-linked recessive inheritance, because the mutated gene is located on the X-chromosome. One X-chromosome carrying the defect makes the mother a carrier with some mild symptoms, if any develop at all. Since women have two sets of X-chromosomes, and sons only inherit one set of X-chromosomes, a son may or may not develop the condition. 8. Treatment for duchenne's muscular dystrophy is aimed at slowing progression and maintaining mobility. This includes physical therapy, medications to help with muscle problems and deterioration, and devices such as wheelchairs and respirators. Can you qualify for disability benefits with this condition? Whether or not you qualify for disability and, as a result, are approved for disability benefits will depend entirely on the information obtained from your medical records. This includes whatever statements may have been obtained from your treating physician (a doctor who has a history of treating your condition and is, therefore, qualified to comment as to your condition and prognosis). It will also depend on the information obtained from your vocational, or work, history if you are an adult, or academic records if you are a minor-age child. The important thing to keep in mind is that the social security administration does not award benefits based on simply having a condition, but, instead, will base an approval or denial on the extent to which a condition causes functional limitations. Functional limitations can be great enough to make work activity not possible (or, for a child, make it impossible to engage in age-appropriate activities). Why are so many disability cases lost at the disability application and reconsideration appeal levels? Speaking as a former Disability Claims Examiner, I can state that there are several reasons: 1) Social Security makes no attempt to obtain a statement from a claimant's treating physician. By contrast, at the hearing level, a claimant and his or her disability attorney will generally obtain and present this type of statement to a judge; 2) Prior to the hearing level, a claimant will not have the opportunity to explain how their condition limits them, nor will their attorney or representative have the opportunity to make a presentation based on the evidence of the case. At the hearing level, of course, this is exactly what happens. And a number of disability representatives will also take such steps even earlier, at the reconsideration appeal level; 3) Disability judges, unlike disability examiners who decides cases at the first two levels of the system, can make independent decisions without being overturned by immediate supervisors--which happens frequently. 
Return to: SSDRC, or the Questions, Answers, Tips, and Advice page Topics and Questions Other Links SSD and SSI are Federal Programs The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here: Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials |