Daughter may get the boot due to a bad ankle

[TripletDad3]

My daughter was awarded a 4 year ROTC scholarship, and had to enlist in the National Guard as soon as she accepted the scholarship. During her first semester, she was running as part of her required PT, and she rolled her ankle before she passed her PFT running test, so she hasn't passed all of her requirements yet. She blows through the other physical requirements with ease, but was about 45 seconds too slow when she got hurt.

She has a high ankle sprain with some ligament damage. They gave her a deferral from passing her physical, while she went to physical therapy, but they want her to be able to pass the PFT by the end of March. Now the doctor (who is a very well respected foot/ankle specialist) said that he thinks she isn't healing completely, and he wants to do surgery to brace the two bones and increase her range of motion, and he thinks she would recover completely in a month while in a walking boot, and she should be able to pass the physical within two months with no future concerns about the ankle whatsoever. He is also willing to talk to the MEPS doctor and whoever else has any questions about it, since he knows how important it is to my daughter.

She is worried that they will yank her ROTC scholarship, discharge her, and make her pay back everything they have spent on her tuition, dorm, and meals. She really likes ROTC, and the NG, and she doesn't want to get discharged. She has never failed at anything she has tried before, and said she is even willing to extend her obligation by a year or two if they will give her a chance to heal up and pass the PFT.

What are her options at this point, what should she do, and what is likely to happen to her?

 

[Wishful]

You didn’t mention if she is going forward with the surgery. I assume that she is since her ankle isn’t healing right & in her present/near future condition, she won’t be able to pass her PFT anyway. From personal experience, joint damage=’s arthritis somewhere along the way, but her Dr. says no future issues so that’s great news.

Unfortunately, I can’t speak to the ROTC concerns, but hopefully other posters can. Wish you & her all the best.

 

[TripletDad3]

Yes, she is going to go ahead with the surgery, unless they tell her that she can't for some reason. She's works out religiously, and is a straight A math major, so I'm hoping that they see that she could be valuable to them if they give her a chance to heal up.

 

[AROTC-dad]

One year ago, my DS fractured his pelvis and radius in a snowboarding accident during winter break as an MS-II. He fully recovered in less than 4 months and the cadre completely worked with him during his recovery and there was no gap in tution or stipends. However, my DS is on AROTC scholarship but not in the SMP/NG program. Note that he had already passed his APFT, as well as DoDMERB well before the accident.

The best info for your DD will be through her ROO and PMS. If she's as solid a cadet as it sounds, I'm sure they will work with her, especially if she is already in the NG.

I hope our resident ROO's, @clarksonarmy or @MohawkArmyROTC can also chime in on this.

Good luck on her recovery.