The most frightening experience any parent can face is to hear that one of their children has been born with a serious illness. Being a parent is rarely an easy task even under ideal circumstances, but the stress can be exponentially increased when a child is chronically ill. To make matters even worse, the bills never seem to stop coming. In fact, they tend to get worse due to additional child care expenses, increased travel costs, lost time at work, and so on. It all just gets to be too much. While nothing can take away the pain of knowing that your child is gravely ill, Social Security disability benefits can help to soften the blow by helping to provide some much-needed financial relief.
In the past, obtaining Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits was an extremely time-consuming and frustrating process. One could plan on the first attempt being denied in seven out of ten cases, necessitating entrance into an agonizingly slow cycle of appealing the decision, waiting for another hearing, and then awaiting another decision that may need to be appealed again, etc. It is not difficult to understand why some applicants simply gave up or even died before they received the benefits they had coming.
Thankfully, the Social Security Administration (SSA) recognized that some illnesses by the nature of their seriousness invariably led to disability status. Therefore, they instituted a policy that dramatically streamlined the approval process, reducing the time between application and receipt of benefits. What used to take months and sometimes years to accomplish could now be done in a matter of weeks under what is known as the Compassionate Allowance program.
Walker Warburg Syndrome is one of the conditions that qualifies for a compassionate allowance. You need to be aware of the fact that time is of the essence. As soon as you or your child has been diagnosed with one of these illnesses, it is important to start the disability application process quickly to avoid any delay in receiving benefits.
Walker Warburg Syndrome - Condition and Symptoms
Walker Warburg Syndrome is a rare form of congenital muscular dystrophy that is associated with eye and brain abnormalities. The term “muscular dystrophy” encompasses approximately thirty different disorders that affect the strength and tone of various voluntary muscles throughout the body; each one has its own unique severity pattern, age of onset and inheritance profile. Walker Warburg syndrome is considered to be among the more serious forms of muscular dystrophy.
Symptoms of Walker Warburg Syndrome can include an unusually smooth brain surface, low muscle tone, muscle weakness, occasional seizures, eye abnormalities (such as conjunctivitis, retinal detachment, or cataracts) which lead to blindness, cleft lip and/or palate, encephalocele (an opening in the skull which does not close), and developmental delay with mental retardation.
Walker Warburg Syndrome is incurable. Most treatment is limited to the management of symptoms. Most children born with Walker Warburg Syndrome do not live beyond their third birthday.
Filing for Social Security Disability with Walker Warburg Syndrome
A child born with Walker Warburg Syndrome invariably qualifies for Social Security disability benefits, because it is among the illnesses that have been listed as a compassionate allowance. What this means for you is that you can plan on your case being expedited so that your wait time for benefits will be significantly shortened. As long as you have the required documents prior to the filing of your application, you can count on receiving approval for your disability status in as little as three weeks.
While it may be tempting to try to handle the application process yourself, it would be a very good idea for you to speak with a Social Security disability lawyer. A disability lawyer will be able to make sure that everything is in order before you apply, instead of sending it in and simply hoping for the best.
When you file for disability for a child with Walker Warburg Syndrome, please be aware that you may need to provide a sample for genetic testing in order to definitively diagnose the disease.
Your Walker Warburg Syndrome Social Security Disability Case
If your child has been diagnosed with Walker Warburg Syndrome, you can be sure that some help is on the way in the form of Social Security disability benefits. In spite of the fact that your approval appears to be a sure thing, you would still be very wise to enlist the services of a Social Security disability lawyer. That way, you can rest easy in the knowledge that your application has been completed by somebody who knows the process well and has successfully completed it numerous times.
