Possible Medical Disenrollment/Discharge for ACL Injury during ROTC PT Time

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armyrotcmom

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My junior in college ROTC / NG SMP son sustained an ACL tear during his ROTC PT time. They had them playing dodge ball and he jumped and landed wrong. Confirmed by MRI and surgeon discussion this morning. Surgery scheduled for Dec 19 after final exams. Surgeon made it very clear this morning that son's past history on this knee (ACL tear Aug 2021 with full recovery and clearance by DoDMEB a year later) did not affect the tear this time. Rather, it was the jumping, twisting, and landing on one foot weirdly that tore his ACL. This surgeon is top notch in his field with lots of primarily football / athlete ACL reconstruction and lots of research into best techniques.

My questions:

  1. How likely is he to be medically disenrolled from ROTC / medically discharged from National Guard? While I know that there is always the chance for him to be deployed, his goal has always been medical school and serve his time as a doctor. He doesn’t need a perfect knee to do that. He scored 97% on ASVAB so I know they had told him as long as his grades are good (3.8 gpa in a STEM major) he could almost ask for any position and get it. Earned all kinds of awards and honors during basic training after his freshman year. He's 6'3" and 240 and has had one of best scores in his batallion for physical fitness in spite of size. Also has been one of fastest as well.
  2. How long does that process take and when would it start?
  3. If the process doesn’t start until after surgery or they say they need to wait….how does that affect his summer since he is a junior and he has ROTC training all summer?
  4. And I’ve read that his insurance may deny his claim since he was in PT at the time. If that happens what do we do? I don’t really want another surgeon who isn’t familiar with his knee to work on him but we certainly don’t have the money for his surgery either.
  5. If he is disenrolled / discharged we know he loses his tuition benefits and stipend but is there anything that would help pay for school?
 
armyrotcmom said:
My junior in college ROTC / NG SMP son sustained an ACL tear during his ROTC PT time. They had them playing dodge ball and he jumped and landed wrong. Confirmed by MRI and surgeon discussion this morning. Surgery scheduled for Dec 19 after final exams. Surgeon made it very clear this morning that son's past history on this knee (ACL tear Aug 2021 with full recovery and clearance by DoDMEB a year later) did not affect the tear this time. Rather, it was the jumping, twisting, and landing on one foot weirdly that tore his ACL. This surgeon is top notch in his field with lots of primarily football / athlete ACL reconstruction and lots of research into best techniques.

My questions:

  1. How likely is he to be medically disenrolled from ROTC / medically discharged from National Guard? While I know that there is always the chance for him to be deployed, his goal has always been medical school and serve his time as a doctor. He doesn’t need a perfect knee to do that. He scored 97% on ASVAB so I know they had told him as long as his grades are good (3.8 gpa in a STEM major) he could almost ask for any position and get it. Earned all kinds of awards and honors during basic training after his freshman year. He's 6'3" and 240 and has had one of best scores in his batallion for physical fitness in spite of size. Also has been one of fastest as well.
  2. How long does that process take and when would it start?
  3. If the process doesn’t start until after surgery or they say they need to wait….how does that affect his summer since he is a junior and he has ROTC training all summer?
  4. And I’ve read that his insurance may deny his claim since he was in PT at the time. If that happens what do we do? I don’t really want another surgeon who isn’t familiar with his knee to work on him but we certainly don’t have the money for his surgery either.
  5. If he is disenrolled / discharged we know he loses his tuition benefits and stipend but is there anything that would help pay for school?
Click to expand...

Your cadet is contracted, correct?
 
3. I can only comment on this one based on a situation in my son's BTN. A Cadet was injured and had to have surgery, he was not able to attend advanced camp due to this situation between Junior and Senior year. Not exactly sure where he was in the recovery process. He did go on to graduate as planned, and was a post graduation commissioning. He attended advanced camp the summer after his senior year and then went on to commission after that.
 
EJF said:
3. I can only comment on this one based on a situation in my son's BTN. A Cadet was injured and had to have surgery, he was not able to attend advanced camp due to this situation between Junior and Senior year. Not exactly sure where he was in the recovery process. He did go on to graduate as planned, and was a post graduation commissioning. He attended advanced camp the summer after his senior year and then went on to commission after that.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that info. That’s one thing we were worried about. His surgery isn’t until December and no way he will be recovered in time. Good to know they can go the summer after.
 
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Slightly different scenario but DS also had to complete the Advance Course after graduation. Tore ACL at Summer Camp, was commissioned immediately afterwards on sore but yet undiagnosed knee. Got MRI the following week and surgery 3 weeks later. Army doc performed the surgery as he was also still considered a military dependent. Lots of confusion about medical coverage for the surgery with TRICARE due to his status as IRR until reporting to BOLC but a mil dependent but injury happened while on orders for training. Anyway the head ortho/sports medicine doc at Tripler (Dr. Bottoni) was amazing. All that was required was a letter from him clearing DS for full return to AD, all training, etc. Reported to BOLC no issues, reported to Ranger school and they reviewed the return to duty from the doc and had to issue a quick waiver.
Obviously his ROTC cadre can give you the best answer but if he’s contracted the surgery should be covered and they’ll just need a release from the doc stating he’s clear to return to duty. It could cause an issue with the pre-commissioning physical but cadre can best advise.
 
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