Posted on Oct 14, 2016
He had a heart attack during a PT test -- and now the Army won't pay the bills
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Pretty tough to go through, especially when you have a family to take care of. His bills should definitely get paid for by Tricare. What are everyone's thoughts on this?
He had a heart attack during a PT test -- and now the Army won't pay the bills
Posted from armytimes.com
Physical Training
Health
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 12
I want to reiterate what Sharon Pillsbury Spears said.
-The Army won't pay for the bills accrued doing his heart attack, but they will pay for sex reassignment surgery? What is going on in today's military?
-The Army won't pay for the bills accrued doing his heart attack, but they will pay for sex reassignment surgery? What is going on in today's military?
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
And His heart attack was a direct result of the PT test and if that test hadn't been given on duty at least then He would not have had that problem during that test. If conditions existed before and wasn't discovered that had no bearing. Everyone in uniform has Physical exams anyway, if there was a problem then a waiver should have been given not requiring the test and possibly even medical retirement. l also am of the opinion if the risk was great enough He was on duty, the Army need to step up and take care of a soldier that suffered as a result of His following their orders and taking the PT Test as they had required. The extra stress the Army is now responsible for sure won't help this soldier's health or well being !
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ENS (Join to see)
I think his status as someone in the reserves is playing a major role in this decision.. It's sad, but true. However, if he falls under Tricare, and was on duty at the time, in my opinion, he should be covered. By not covering this person, you're turning your back not only on a service member, but on all members of the reserves as a whole. The DoD puts a lot of funding towards questionable medical operations, gear, and "meetings" like new uniform changes.. there is absolutely no reason to be stingy with our brother, a fellow service member, when we are spending so irresponsibly elsewhere. Cuts shouldn't come at the cost of our health and quality of life.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
Sgt Gus Laskaris - Hard to say without more information but not covering the medical expenses is a whole other problem.
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So the CPT was participating in his drill weekend and experienced a very costly heart attack. The Army essentially is saying that it was his lifestyle choices that caused the heart attack - not the Army. This is why they are refusing to foot the bill. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. The man spent 3 years active duty and some time before that in the Coast Guard. He's been in the reserve for 3 years. If he was in uniform and on duty I feel that he should be covered..
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MSgt James "Buck" Buchanan
Uniform on, doing duty should equal all covered...but then the bean counters get involved.
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This just doesn't make any sense to me. Seems as if they are making the decision based on an opinion that the PT test did not 'trigger' the heart attack, but that doesn't pass the common sense test either, he was at a drill when it happened (at least that's the way I read it, why would he have been taking a PT test if he wasn't). Is there a big piece of the puzzle missing somewhere?
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1SG Al Brown
Yep. You are correct. The moment he was under control of the OIC /NCOIC of the PT Test, they owned the good and the bad of which a PT test can cause. PT Tests cause heart attacks all the time. Those sirens you hear on large installations in the morning aren't ambulance practice drills. I'm with you, somethings missing or the LOD Officer and the CoC that accepted this are going to get embarrassed.
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