Were you ever seriously misdiagnosed while in the military? The problem is often more complex than you think.

Three times it happened to me. One of them being the cause of my medical discharge because it went on for 2 years with multiple HMC's seeing me.

First time, I was shipboard and got very ill. The doc gave me a prescription of Erythromycin, but wrote the wrong dosage - this was back in the day before the computers spit out the proper information, and they referred to a book for dosages. Basically, he doubled my dosage. I was barely 100lbs and by that first night, I thought I was literally going to die, the pressure in my chest had me barely breathing and crying at the same time from the intense pain. My AOIC stepped in and got involved, took me down to medical, found out the problem and told the doc he had to watch me overnight to make sure I didn't OD. The Doc to cover his rear put in my medical record I was allergic to the drug. That followed me for years till I got pink eye one year and the topical ointment they give for that is Erythromycin. I explained what had happened shipboard, the doc took a gamble and prescribed it, then later crossed it off of my record.

Second time I injured my foot. I was an avid runner. Was in ASF training and somehow did something where my foot stung initially and the pain receded. Thinking nothing was wrong I maintained running. Over the course of a couple of weeks the ball of my foot began to feel very bruised. Went to medical - they advised it was just a stressed tendon or muscle, possibly just a bruise from stepping on a rock while running. Sent me on my way. About a month later, I was back at medical with the same issue. They finally did an xray, found nothing. Told me nothing was wrong to lay off the running for a bit. PRT came around, I finished the run and then could barely stand for the pain and went back to medical. They again said nothing was wrong, that I was just trying to get out of the PRT. See the pattern here? This went on for TWO years. A back and forth. After that PRT they put me LIMDU for small stretches of times, hoping the issue would resolve itself. In Rota, Spain the doc there saw the problem and told me I had an extra bone in my foot. It was not an extra bone, it was my bone split in two pieces. For two years I kept going in requesting to be sent to a Podiatrist or Orthopedic Surgeon and they all thought they knew best and refused to send me to them. One HMC told me he was going to send me to Psychiatry because it was all in my head. It took a LT Reservist serving his two weeks duty to review my record and ask why in two years no one had sent me to a Specialist. He was livid. That awesome man finally sent me to a Podiatrist and with an Army base no less, since he said they care more about the feet than the Navy apparently did. In 5 minutes the Podiatrist diagnosed the problem. I had caused a minor fracture when I initially injured my foot. The running compounded the issue and split the bone. After an MRI, it was determined the bone was dead, since it was left untreated for 2 years. Plus, since I was LIMDU for 2 years - automatic medical discharge. I had the bone removed by the Navy though just prior to my discharge. It was the first time in 2 years that I did not limp. Got 10% and told me I was lucky to get that. 2 years with my gait thrown off messed up my knee and back too. I can no longer run. That one small bone being removed misaligned all the others. Even with custom orthodic inserts, running is too much and I will get multiple fractures in the other bones within my foot. I have tried many times, always ending up in a walking boot. haha Can't say I haven't tried.

The third one was in the middle of the second. I was getting my last in the series for the Anthrax vaccine. Was asked if I were pregnant. I was always told I could never have children so I automatically answered no. I was 2 wks pregnant. Carried my son full term. Was terrified about what that vaccine was going to do to him.

I am not all that willing to trust a doctor and they don't understand why. lol.

My wife missed a combat deployment (which cost her at least 1 promotion) because of a female doc at BMC Ft Worth. She was on multiple meds for over a year that are not to be talen for more than 3 months.She was also on meds that were dangerous to be used in combination. That doc finally got replaced by a new Ensign. He sent my wife to a chiropracter, and 2 months later she was back in good shape.

Every day....they think I'm normal

Over 30 years ago I was simply leaning over my rack attempting to open a window on Governors Island, NY and the old window pain broke and my whole palm went through it. Almost severed my left hand. Went to the ER and a corpsman sewed it up. Saw an MD for about 10 seconds and he said all was fine. About a month later as the bandages were being removed I noticed that I couldn't move my fingers the way I used to be able to. Attempted to get further diagnosis to no avail. Actually took leave and drove to Walter Reed Medical Center and saw an Army Lt. Col who was a hand surgeon. He told me there wasn't much he could do at that point and if the Coast Guard wanted your hand fixed they should have sent you down here a month ago! Apparently there are multiple tendons in the hand and I managed to cut the ones that control individual finger movement.

Did all of ET A School with one hand and graduated first in my class. The instructors told me that they would forever use me as an example whenever anyone was complaining about physical limitations..."You know we had a guy graduate first in his class with one hand!" lol So I have that going for me.

Was offered disability but I turned it down. I manage just fine.

Yes, just prior to retiring. At that point I was deemed rational and sane then RallyPoint came along and undid my whole persona :-) Now that LTC (Join to see) has met me face to face he can attest to my craziness! It's not quite Klinger in a dress section 8 stuff, but close.

"You're just dehydrated, drink more water" - ER doc.
A week later I had back surgery...

Medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States...and guess who is signing off on the other two?

SFC Mark Merino My brother retired from the Army as a Medic and because of the jolting around in heavy equipment (jeeps, tanks, etc) he suffered from a congenital condition that nearly cost him his life. They had to remove a part of his skull to relieve the pressure. Now he has full medical retirement and disability rated at 100%.

My story is not as severe as yours, however I found myself in the same situation. I have spent years with lower back pain and was taking pills and seeing a chiro to ease the pain. After years of seeing my PCM, it took me complaining about my physical therapist just to get referred to ortho. The first visit with my ortho diagnosed me with facet syndrome (arthritis) in my lower back in several vertebrate. I now have pain management for the rest of my life as this cannot be fixed. I literally spent about 16 months on temporary profiles because they couldn't find anything wrong, until the ortho got involved. I have missed out on NCOES schools and other various professional development schools on numerous occasions because of it (bouncing around from temp to temp profiles). I have still yet to be seen for constant knee pain and serious headaches about 8x a month. I annotated those same issues on my PHA last year, and I was told I had to reschedule for an appointment like 1-2 months later because my blood pressure was a little higher during the PHA appointment and that took priority.

I even remember a time about 8 years ago when I got sudden severe abdominal pain and it literally hurt to breathe. I got X-rays and a mammogram done and they couldn't find anything wrong. When they finally got done the doc told me that he didn't know what was wrong and just wrote "abdominal wall strain" on my records. The pain was still present for about 3 weeks afterwards.

I heard of one PA that failed to reconcile all the medications one of her patients was on before adding more. The patient was on some medication for post traumatic stress. Long story short, the patient died from a fatal drug interaction.

Another story involved a medic that saw a patient for persistent foot pain. She wrote him off as having a sprained ankle and sent him on his merry way with some ibuprofen. The patient went to the ER later that day and was found to have a fracture on his metatarsal. I chalk that one up to a poor initial physical exam.

The problem I've seen is in the BCT's. You're unit is assigned one PA and he or she becomes the choke point for follow on care. If that provider doesn't think you need to see a specialist, it becomes a huge road block. This is a problem that some times happens, not the rule.

The patient is then left to find some other PA (usually another with in the same BCT) who will make time on their schedule to see them and hopefully agree to refer to a specialist.

Most soldiers usually run to the ER when they get an answer that is less than satisfactory. The ER providers aren't primary care managers (PCM) for that soldier. The best they can do is manage the symptoms and refer back to that PA. The ER doc (assuming it's an MD. Some posts have PA or MD students working the ER under supervision) can add their two cents to the patient's electronic record, but it is still up to the PCM.

There are good doctors in the Army medical system. The toughest part of it is that the Army can't often compete with the private sector to retain the most talented.