What can I claim secondary to gunshot injury?
1 condition in the Repatriation Medical Authority's Statements of Principles list gunshot injury as a factor. If DVA has accepted your gunshot injury, each of these has a documented pathway to a further claim.
At a glance
- Accepted conditionGunshot injury
- Conditions it may open1
- SourceRMA SoPs
- Chart Review$600 + GST
How a secondary claim works
Some Statement of Principles factors are not about service at all — they name another condition. Where DVA has already accepted your gunshot injury, and another condition's SoP lists gunshot injury as a factor, that part of the next claim is already established on your file. How a secondary claim works, in full →
Conditions that list gunshot injury as a factor
Quoted from the instrument. A pathway existing is not the same as a claim succeeding — each factor carries thresholds your record has to satisfy.
Erectile dysfunction
RH No. 72 of 2022 · BoP No. 73 of 2022
Reasonable Hypothesis — factor (17): “having blunt trauma, penetrating trauma including surgical trauma, explosive blast injury or gunshot injury to the external genitals, perineum or pelvis, within the 3 months before the clinical onset of erectile dysfunction” [clinical onset] — factor (42): “having blunt trauma, penetrating trauma including surgical trauma, explosive blast injury or gunshot injury to the external genitals, perineum or pelvis, within the 3 months before the clinical worsening of erectile dysfunction” [worsening]
Balance of Probabilities — factor (16): “having blunt trauma, penetrating trauma including surgical trauma, explosive blast injury or gunshot injury to the external genitals, perineum or pelvis, within the 3 months before the clinical onset of erectile dysfunction” [clinical onset] — factor (38): “having blunt trauma, penetrating trauma including surgical trauma, explosive blast injury or gunshot injury to the external genitals, perineum or pelvis, within the 3 months before the clinical worsening of erectile dysfunction” [worsening]
Note: blunt trauma is defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.
Other accepted conditions that also open erectile dysfunction
If any of these is also on your file, it reaches some of the same conditions gunshot injury does.
What DVA means by gunshot injury
A claim is tested against the definition first. If the diagnosis on your file does not meet this wording, the factors below never get reached — so it is worth checking that what your doctor wrote matches what the instrument requires.
Gunshot injury, for the purposes of the Statement of Principles, for the purposes of this Statement of Principles, gunshot injury means damage to body tissue, organs or bone as a result of a gunshot.
Aggravation-only factors. In this instrument, subsections 9(2) apply only to material contribution to, or aggravation of, gunshot injury where it was already present before or during service. If service caused gunshot injury outright, those factors are not available to you.
RH No. 23 of 2020 · BoP No. 24 of 2020 · 2 factors
Reviewed by Dr Thomas Perkins
Founding doctor, Veterans Health Centre · former RAAF aviation medical officer · 13 years working exclusively with ADF members and veterans. Full profile →
Gunshot injury accepted?
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