Montana Veteran Files VA Appeal Over Unqualified Doctor Evaluation

Mont. case could have implications for thousands of vets 
Great Falls Tribune
Eric Newhouse
May 15, 2015

But since the Montana Board of Psychologists concluded that the RBANS test wasn't sufficient to measure neurological impairment because of a TBI and that Bateen wasn't qualified to make neurological diagnoses, Del Negro argues that all vets diagnosed by Bateen ought to have their cases re-evaluated.

Gatlin studies for his classes at his home office.
Gatlin and his wife have been fighting the VA for last
two years while Gatlin has been a grad student, and
struggling to find a balance between school and his case.
(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/ABBY REDFERN)

WASHINGTON – Echoing a state licensing board, a VA appeals board here has ordered the Fort Harrison VA Hospital to provide a full neurological examination for a University of Montana graduate student with a traumatic brain injury.

It's a decision that could have implications for thousands of vets with TBI across the state and around the country — but the VA flatly says that won't happen.

The case involves Charles Gatlin, a Ranger-qualified former Army captain who suffered a brain injury after a large truck bomb knocked him unconscious near Kirkuk, Iraq, in 2006.

The Army put Gatlin through a three-day battery of neuropsychological tests in 2006, 2007 and 2009 and concluded he had suffered significant attention problems, processing speed deficits and persistent frontal lobe dysfunction.

After three years, the final test concluded that the injuries had stabilized and appeared to be permanent.

Retired from the Army with a 70 percent TBI disability rating, Gatlin and his wife, Ariana Del Negro, returned to Montana.

At the Fort Harrison VA hospital, staff psychologist Robert Bateen ran Gatlin through a short screening exam, concluded that his cognitive deficits were not significant and dropped his TBI disability rating to 10 percent, although he also added a 30 percent rating for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gatlin appealed that ruling to the VA Board of Appeals two years ago, but also filed a complaint with the Montana Board of Psychologists, the state board in Helena that licenses psychologists, arguing that the screening assessment wasn't adequate to measure his cognitive ability; that Bateen wasn't qualified to make the assessment because he wasn't a neuropsychologist; and that Bateen incorrectly characterized the results of that test.
read more here