My son is at Navy boot camp and during his 5th week of training, he had a series of 5 vaccinations to include yellow fever, tetanus, typhoid, and penicillin. He had a anaphylactic reaction and angioedema. He was allowed to complete all physical requirements of his training and is now 2 days from graduating. He was notified today (Tuesday) that he will not be allowed to graduate on Friday, because he is being medically separated for above conditions. How can they medically separate him if they do not even know what the reaction was caused by? He has never been given penicillin before and this might be what caused it. Baffled.
Anaphylactoid reaction--automatically DQ?
- Thread starter corlyf
- Start date
From what I understand (that is, according US Military medical standards) any history of anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock/reactions are a dis qualifier, it does not matter what caused the reaction, just whether or not someone had one. This would include reactions that occur during basic training seeing as that has occurred before his actual induction into the Navy. Its unfortunate, but those are their standards. You may be able to obtain a medical waiver, but your son would have to cycle through boot camp again. Not only that, but waivers are not always granted. I would talk to some Navy doctors and see what they can do for you.
thanks. update is that he is out of boot camp on a entry level med sep. he is going to a doctor to find out what he is allergic to and we will retry. will post back here the outcome so that someone in the future looking at this post will know what to expect should they run into the same situation. thanks again!