Can I file for disability for 1 year if I had heart surgery?  I operate heavy equipment and I don’t know if I can take the jarring?
–Brenard

Jonathan Ginsberg responds:   You would be eligible for Social Security disability benefits if your heart condition – both before and after the surgery – left you unable to perform any type of work at all.  Note that this definition looks to more than whether you can or cannot return to operating heavy equipment.  Could you perform a simple, sit down, unskilled job.

Sometimes a client will say something like "there are no simple, unskilled jobs that I know about," or "I would not make enough money assembling circuit boards or taking tickets at a movie theatre."  My response – the question is whether you could perform one of these jobs.  How much you could earn, how you would find one of these jobs or how you could travel to the jobsite is irrelevant.

In a heart surgery case, I would look at the two or three months prior to the surgery to see if you were experiencing fatigue or pain that prevented you from performing work.  I would look at the months following the surgery to see if you had any complications and how long your rehabilitation lasted.  Ultimately, you would need a statement from your doctor saying that for a period of 12 consecutive months you were unable to perform any type of work.

Finally, in discussing your question, I assume that you are younger than 50 years old and that you have a high school or higher education.  There are some different rules for SSDI claimants 50 years old and older who have high school or less education.  For claimants in the 50+ age bracket with limited education, you can be found disabled even if you could perform some types of work.  The rules that apply in this situation are called the grid rules, and are discussed on another post of this blog.

[tags] heart problems and disability, unable to work for 1 year, 12 consecutive months, grid rules [/tags]