Confused, please help

tnadumont

Member
Registered Member
Here it goes, in January of this year my husband joined the army. During the last few weeks of basic training he started having alot of pain in his hips. He was told it was muscle related but during his final road march he only made it 3 miles before his hip broke. The femoral neck on the left side ended up with three screws, and another stress fracture was found in his right hip. He spent months in a wheel chair waiting for them to heal. His range of motion is horrible now and he takes narcotics everyday for the pain. He is unable to carry or 2yr old son more than a few feet at a time, can't climb stairs, run, or walk for more than a block without use of a cane or crutches. We have been told that he will end up with arthritis in the future and a possible hip replacement on the left side. The right side now has sclerosis due to bleeding of the fracture. His doctors told him that he's unable to perform the duties he'd need to, in order to remain in the Army. So the Medical Board process was started.
Yesterday his findings came back with a rating of only 10% for slight constant pain. He was not rated for the injuries to his hips or lack of range of motion. Not to mention that the pain he does have is serve enough to require narcotics everyday. He wants to go to Texas for the formal appeal. But we've been told that there's no point in going because the rating won’t be changed.
Someone please help, his injuries are going to cause him pain for the rest of his life. He's only 23 and his injuries could really prevent him from finding a job to support our family. What should we do, no one here is willing to help, they just keep trying to talk him out of going to Texas. He's told to think about kids and I, yet we're all he's thinking about.
We've spent hours trying to find info on hip fractures or related injuries and how it's rated but we can't seem to find anything that we're looking for. Thanks
 
There is a point...

tnadumont,

Welcome to PEB Forum. Sorry that your husband is going through all of this. Hopefully you find some helpful information here.

First, there is a point to going to the Formal. In my experience, on average a third or more of cases get an upgraded rating. Getting the upgrade depends on the facts of your husband's case, but they do upgrade. Remember, the benefits are the same if they rate him at 0%, 10% or 20% (separation with severance pay), so unless they don't rate him at all (highly unlikely given the facts you described, the only way they could would be if they found his condition Existed Prior To Service), he has nothing to lose by demanding the formal.

As for the pain, the APDA pain policy (found here Policy Memo 13) maxes pain out at 20%. If your husband is on daily narcotic medication and it significantly impacts on his daily activities, he may well get to 20%. The down side of this is that they may be using the pain as a reason not to rate his limitation of range of motion. In my view, this is illegal and I believe if challenged in a Federal Court, would not stand. But the policy is that ROM limited by pain is not rated. I recommend you read this thread.

As for the hip and fracture, remember, the VASRD compensates for loss of function. So, you won't find a rating for a "broken bone." You find ratings for loss of use of the limb, or for arthritis (which may or may not be present and may be rated by analogy, which is a way of saying your husband's functional limitation most closely matches the limitation that would come if he had that condition). All of the musculoskelatal ratings are found here.

The sclerosis may also be rated if it is a permanent condition and is unfitting. The rating would likely be under code 7821 depending on the symptoms. Here is the schedule for skin conditions.

Best of luck and let us know any questions.
 
Thank you

Thank you for all the info that you just gave me. I've spent hours trying to find information that was made available in your post.
The Sclerosis that he now has in his right hip is a hardening of the bone due to the bleeding caused by the stress fracture. It can cause a great deal of pain on it's own and from what I've read could also cause the bone to become very brittle in the years to come. But noone even mentioned it to us, I noticed the medical comments about it yesterday while looking over his paper work that went to PEB. So it wasn't even mentioned in his NARSUM.
He's upset that he's being kicked out of the military because of the injuries he acquired while he was here, yet his findings are only rating him on the pain that the injuries are causing. We tried contacting JAG today for advice and the lady on the phone told us we had to contact someone else because JAG couldn't help us with Medical Board issues. Which made me laugh because Peblo sent us to JAG when we stated our concern about the findings.
Just curious, once he tells Peblo that he wants a formal appeal does anyone have any idea about how long it takes before you get it? We've had guys here tell us he'd leave for Texas within a week of the request then others have told us it could be months before he'd be able to go. Is there any truth to this?
 
4-5 weeks

Glad to help. As far as timing, generally, it about 4-5 weeks from demand until formal hearing. This can vary depending on the case load, who is on leave at the Board, etc.

You will be able to talk to a JAG at the PEB after you demand the formal. They are the only ones with any experience in PEBs, it is not something that Legal Assistance can help you with. The JAGs, however, usually don't review your case until a few weeks prior to the PEB, so it can be hard getting info early. They recently mobilized some reservist JAGs there, so hopefully this has gotten better.

Key to getting anything rated is showing how it interferes with duty performance. You may have an issue to raise with the sclerosis not being included in NARSUM. But, if you don't show it is unfitting, they won't rate it.

Let us know any questions.
 
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