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I experienced the worst medical treatment and it led to permanent damage on my foot. Is there anything I could do?

southcastle

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Hello, I'm currently serving in military full time as a NCM.

I would like to discuss, how and who to complain about my past medical treatment that led to permanent change on my foot. I would like to stay anonymous so I won't say where I'm working and won't specify things that could reveal my identity.

Currently, I'm wearing custom insole that are provided from military (Physiotherapist Officer refer), before I never wear a such thing and custom insole was provided because my pain consisted until the end of my physiotherapy treatment. Until today I have pain at night when I walk barefoot on hard surface floors. I did not go back to see the doctor yet because I can work, run, do activity during day. However I still have tolerable pain during at night like i said earlier.

The problem start roughly two years ago with a physician practitioner in a military hospital. I will refer him as Mr.R. I broke my foot and Mr.R gave me a cast for A MONTH and TOOK IT OFF on my first check up (Mr.R did not showed the X-ray this time but he start showing me the x-rays on future visits and I have all these x-rays in CD because I took too many X-rays and I asked one from radiologist). I thought my foot was fine so I was put back to work by my staff (I work in physically demanding trade which involved a lot of lifting heavy objects). After two weeks my injured area was kept on hurting, so I decided to go get check up again. In my x-ray, two fractures was still there; vertical and horizontal fracture on same bone, yet the MR.R took my cast off.

This time he didn't bother giving me a cast which he should've done in my opinion. He gave me funny boots and made me walk on it for couple months, during this couple months period, I got few check ups and the bone was healing at very slow pace. If I had to guess the reason for prolonged healing period of my bone was because he forgot to give me a crutches. Why would that be my guess? because he asked during my check up, "where is your crutches?", and I replied "You never gave me one", and he was silence for few seconds and looked stunned by my reply. That day, he asked a medical tech to sign and bring the crutches to me.

I can't get over what happened to me, now i have permanently damaged foot rest of my life because of this guy. My foot came back almost to normal but I still know in back of my head it will never be the same again. You could ask me how did you not tell anyone about this? I tell you when I saw foot specialist because my foot was taking too long to heal and final CT scan was being reviewed with specialist, I said to him. "Mr.R messed my foot up by taking cast too early". He replied "I can't tell you anything but your bone is all healed.", "do you want insoles to easy your discomfort?" and I turned down the offer because I was angry with his reply. I never saw him again and the next thing followed was physio to start rehab. I also told physio person (Officer) but she acknowledged my situation but she didn't take any action.

Maybe I should've took action about what happened to me earlier but I didn't know better and still I don't, I just like to keep my head down and do my work, but now it is getting to me. What could I do to get over this? I still have pain and discomfort on my foot everyday. I only start wearing custom made insoles just couple weeks ago because I didn't like the fact that I need to wear custom insole and wanted to get over without using custom insole, but after meeting with physiotherapist. She mentioned you need to wear it for next 6 weeks and if the pain continues you need to go see the doctor. So I'm waiting this 6 weeks period. So far it's been 3 weeks and there are little improvement but I still have pain and discomfort during night.

Could anyone lead me to what can be done to improve my situation? In military system I'm fit but I'm actually not, my feet gets tired fast but right now I'm sucking it up and working everyday. I'm at new unit in same base and I'm just a Cpl who is on 4th year behind my peers because of injury time, and so far I kept this by myself other than those two medical staffs I mentioned early. If someone could give me any advice I would be grateful. Thank you for your time. All the best!
 
I'll take a shot at helping.

1. Stop seeing yourself as just a corporal.

2. Pour yourself a drink (alcohol or not) and accept that the person you think caused this probably won't suffer any repercussions.

3. Write down a timeline of events so someone reading it can get a quick idea of the past.

4. Call the base CDU and book an appointment with a clinician (doctor).

5. Meet your doctor, explain the past (use the write up you made), explain you're in pain and suffering
a) see what they can do to give you restrictions for right now if you need them, so you're not making it worse
b) come up with a long term recovery plan

6. Contact VAC and submit a claim for your injury.
I highly recomend contacting the Royal Canadian Legion and asking for one of their regional officers to help you navigate the VAC process.
 
I put in a claim for pain and suffering for poor dental treatment in addition to more typical claims for my ankle and shoulders. The dental claim has been at step 3 for over two years now. I submitted all my claims in Oct 2018. My other submissions are long decided, and my ankle has already been re-assessed.

So not quite the same thing but maybe problematic for them in a similar way? I haven't poked them about it yet but will start soon. I believe Jarnhammer's advice is solid and the sooner you submit to VAC the better.

AK
 
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