How's it going everyone?
I am currently on Active Duty in the Navy, and going through the long process of a MEB. I have a few questions based on a service connected disability in my left eye. In Sept. 2011, after arriving home from deployment, my son had accidently poked me in my eye with a plastic sandbox shovel, in turn cutting my cornea up. Long story short, the cornea didnt heal properly with bandage lenses. In Feburary 2012, the cornea had opened back up, and the Navy had sent me to a Civilian Opthomoligist in town. From there the doctor performed a PRK surgery, removing the cornea to help it grow back smoothly and normal. Imediatley after the surgery, I developed a rare staff infection in that eye. It took several weeks for the results of the infection concluding it was a staff infection. They fought the infection for about a month. (extremley painful) The staff infection had scarred through all 5 layers of my cornea, dead center in the eye. Prior to the surgery my vision was 20/20, and is currently at 20/200. Ive been on countless eye drops, to try and thin scarring, but it has reached its maximum potential. The doctors now say the only thing left is a cornea transplant. HERE IS THE TRICKY PART! My EAOS is Nov. 2012, it is currently the end of AUG. 2012. They started the MEB on me because I'm not able to perform my job duties, and with the surgery / recovery they would have to retain me in the navy up to 2 years past my EAOS. Now with the very common possibilities of complications / cornea rejection, it could very likely turn into a reoccurrent situation. I have been doing alot of research and I've found that the maximum for one eye (under different circumstances) is a 30% rating. With all that being said I know have a couple of questions:
1. How will the DOD rate this (compensation)?
2. How will the VA rate this (compensation)?
3. Since a surgical complication affected the loss of vision will my rating be looked at in a higher stand point then a general corneal scar?
Any feed back is deeply appreciated. This MEB proccess is a very stressful proccess, and receiving any insight will help greatly. Thank you all.