Meb. Corneal Scarring. Awaiting Transplant.

[a.ballard.usn]

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.

[jvretiredvet]

1. How will the DOD rate this (compensation)? The military services' Physical Evaluation Boards (PEB, the board that makes the disability decision) uses the same criteria as the VA http://www.benefits....PART4/S4_79.DOC . Off hand, I'd say that your Diagnostic Code (DC) might be 6001 or perhaps 6009, with the evaluation based on the analogous DC 6001-6066 (or 6009-6066). Based on what you wrote, I come up with 20%.

2. How will the VA rate this (compensation)? See #1.

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? No. You are rated on chronic residuals. It's not the journey, it's the destination.

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.

[a.ballard.usn]

I really appreciate the reply jvretiredvet. This information you have given me is pretty helpful. I've read up on it a little bit previously. I do have a question though.

What exactly do they mean by "With incapacitating episodes having a total duration"?

Do they mean the total time you were put on SIQ?

[jvretiredvet]

Sorry, I choose not to answers questions such as you posed.

I really appreciate the reply jvretiredvet. This information you have given me is pretty helpful. I've read up on it a little bit previously. I do have a question though.

What exactly do they mean by "With incapacitating episodes having a total duration"?

Do they mean the total time you were put on SIQ?

[USMC5811]

What exactly do they mean by "With incapacitating episodes having a total duration"?

NOTE: For VA purposes, an incapacitating episode is a period of acute symptoms severe enough to require prescribed bed rest and treatment by a physician or other healthcare provider (For example, temporary bed rest required for a retinal condition.) http://www.vba.va.go...60N-2-ARE.pdf

I just have to add this - your question asked exactly what they mean by the definition of incapacitating episodes. That is tough because if you look at the case of Wisniewski v Shinseki (United States Court of Veterans Claims) you'll find that the Board has trouble defining what exactly it means and it will show the VA's definition of incapacitating episodes changes depending on diagnostic code. http://search.uscour...eefa1749/1/doc/

If the above link to the Wisniewski Case does not work you can find the case by doing the following:

Go here: http://www.uscourts.cavc.gov/

Then click on Case Information

Then click on Decision and Opinions

A prompt will come up reading: Search the ISYS System for Decisions and Opinions - Click on that and then type in Wisniewski in the search box provided.

What I would personally do is keep a diary/log of the times you were placed on bed rest by whatever physician as well as the times where your incapacitated but did not have a doctors order but your symptoms/pain/etc were so severe that it affected your work or daily living. If your unable to write because of your condition - a recorder always comes in handy and later you can have it transcribed. Documentation is sooooo important when dealing with the VA...rather then trying to recall things (times/dates) from memory. Just my opinion......

Edited August 30, 2012 by USMC5811