Legal Question in Military Law in Oklahoma

Hurt during basic training

My son was in the Army for a few short weeks and was discharged after an injury. He was in the ARMY PREP program for his GED. He fell and hit his head on a concrete bench of somesort and recieved a level 4 concussion. He was unconscience for nearly 6 hours. Because of the injury he now has issues with Touerettes (the recruiter knew he had this and because he had not seen a doc in 10 years or had any issues) they said there was no need to brind it up while we signed. the tourettes has since come back and he has ongoing issues with memory, dizziness, headaches and more. These issues are NOT related to tourettes at all but to post concussion issues. the military basically treated him and dumped him off to deal with it. Does he not earn anything as far as medical care, training, disability, etc...he is unable to have a regular job right now because of the issues from the injury. I feel that the Army should take some responsibility since he was serving in the military, had a contract and was injured while in training. HELP!


Asked on 5/19/09, 2:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
William J. Holmes Attorney at Military Law

Re: Hurt during basic training

What kind of a discharge did your son receive? If he was dicharged because of medical issues, he should have been reviewed by a medical evaluation board and given a medical discharge which would have entitled him to disability or severance pay as well as possible VA benefits. If he was only in a few weeks, he probably was given an entry level discharge but he still should have been treated for his injuries. Even though he may have had Tourette's prior to entry in the service, the injury while in the service certainly aggravated his condition as well as creating new problems.

You need to make sure you get or have all of his medical records while he was in the service. Once you get those, we may be able to try to get his discharge changed to a medical discharge.

I hope this has helped answer some of your questions. If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me directly.

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Answered on 5/20/09, 11:42 am


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