The Broken Soldier

Jimison Taylor Hutchinson is a member of the Michigan Army National Guard. An Air-Force veteran, Jimison joined the National Guard last year after completing his degree at the University of Michigan, deciding to postpone pursuing professional education to serve his country as an Officer.

Enlisting in May 2006, Jimison was assigned to the 1171st until the next Office Candidate School (OCS) class was to begin in June 2006.

In August, having not been sent to OCS yet, Jimison attended annual training in Grayling, Michigan. His performance there earned him an Army Achievement Medal, awarded by Major General Canon.

The next OCS cycle came and went, and Jimison had still not been cleared to attend. This was in part due to not having a full clothing and equipment issue, and in part because a training instructor felt that a prior service Air Force vet would have trouble in Army OCS without having attended Army Basic Training.

In February 2007, Jimison was informed that he was to be sent to Warrior Transition Course - a training intended for individuals with prior service in the military, to learn “the Army way.”

While this was not a part of his contract, Jimison was strongly encouraged, if not coerced into this training, to learn Army protocol and rank structure.

On 14 February 2007, Jimison departed for New Mexico, bound for the Warrior Transition Course.

In-processing was held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in abysmal conditions (The students stayed in the hospital that Geronimo died in). For the first few days there, Jimison and the other students were left standing outside in the cold, in 30-degree temperatures for hours on end wearing only Army sweat-suits (marshmallows) with no coats. Jimison fell ill with a high fever in the 100s, but tried to get through the two weeks he was at Fort Sill. He was encouraged to tough it out, with instructors informing students on a regular basis that if you get sent to sick hall, they would be recycled (which is the equivalent of being held back).

Jimison did tough it out and when he arrived in New Mexico to begin training, he collapsed in the field with a 105F degree temperature. Jimison’s uniform had to be packed with ice to try to bring his temperature down, and he was taken to the ER. While there was he told that he could have suffered serious brain damage, or even died had this fever been left to go on any longer.

Upon his return from the ER, he was sent to the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Platoon (PTRP) and subsequently recycled. PTRP lasted two weeks and Jimison was encouraged to try to get back into training so that he could return home sooner, as opposed to being stuck in PTRP for an extended period of time.

After his first week at WTC, still not having fully recovered, Jimison was in a banquet hall with about 250 other students attending a class. An instructor ordered all of the students, and all of their gear, out of the hall in ten seconds – else they face some sort of punishment. 250 trainees rushed to sling their gear and exit the hall. Jimison slung his rucksack and his weapon over his shoulder, and in the process was hit from the front and behind by other students also trying to sling their gear and get out of the hall. It was at this time that Jimison felt a pop in his back and pain radiating down his right leg.

Worried about being PTRP’d again, Jimison tried to tough it out and make it through the last two weeks of training. However the symptoms didn’t get any better, so he went to the medic. The medic felt that he didn’t have the necessary staff to address the symptoms Jimison was describing, so he was sent to a civilian doctor. The civilian doctor ordered an MRI and various pain medications. When Jimison went to have his scripts filled, he learned that his orders had expired and TriCare no longer covered him.

Jimison went back to the base and told them what had happened. Cadre said they would try to take care of the orders and also get his scripts filled. The medic suggested that Jimison wait until he got to White Sands to see an Army staff doctor.

When Jimison arrived at White Sands, he went to sick hall and saw an Army doctor, who was an doctor of Osteopathy (DO). The DO ignored the civilian doctor’s recommendation to get an MRI and didn’t do any type of diagnostic testing. Rather, the DO punched the symptoms into WebMD and went with the least severe diagnosis – a pulled muscle. The DO gave Jimison Naproxen (a weak anti-inflammatory), a running waiver, and an order to do more crunches.

As had been constant during the entire training, he was told that the quickest way to get out of WTC was to just pass the course. He was encouraged, in spite of his injury, to tough it out and finish the training. If he couldn’t tough it, Jimison would face being PTRP’d again, thus extending his stay and ensure that he would miss the next OCS cycle, set to begin in June 2007.

Jimison gradudated training two weeks later and was told that an Line of Duty investigation (LOD) would be started before he left White Sands.
As instructed by WTC administrators, when Jimison arrived home from training he informed his unit of his return and inquired about the status of the LOD. No one in the 1171st knew if an LOD had been started and seemed unable to find such information. They began the LOD process at the unit level.

SSG Louann Grover ordered Jimison not, under any circumstances, to get medical care until the LOD was approved. The reason given was that if he did seek care, SSG Grover would have to do a lot of additional paperwork in order for Jimison to recoup out-of-pocket expenses.

Jimison and his wife felt they must seek some sort of medical attention for the injury, even if that meant paying out-of-pocket for some form of pain management while waiting for the LOD to be approved.

Several months of paperwork with the unit followed, yielding no results.

When Jimison had first returned home, he was experiencing moderate to severe back pain and mild sciatica.

As the months were passing, the symptoms were increasing. Pain had spread through his legs and feet. The back pain was increasing and spreading throughout all over his back. He was experiencing increased neurological symptoms including light urinary and bowel incontinence, and sensory and motor impairment in his right leg and foot.

Jimison sought care from a local 24-hour urgent care facility. The doctor there ordered an MRI and prescribed pain medication. The MRI indicated that Jimison had a right side broad-based lateral disc herniation effacing an ipsilateral exiting spinal nerve root.

When the doctor who ordered the MRI reviewed the results, he said, “Dude, your back is fucked. I’m sorry.”

Jimison and his wife contacted Senator Carl Levin and Governor Jennifer Granholm, as well as the local Fox affiliate WJBK, (http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/), and several other local and national news outlets and television stations (including CBN, NBC, Fox).

With little information from his unit and no one to turn to for help, Jimison and his wife contacted the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline after reading about it on FoxNews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287847,00.html). They began to investigate and eventually put his wife in touch with people in the National Guard.

Sarah, Jimison’s wife, was put in touch with Joint Force State Headquarters in Lansing. LTC Michael Lee informed her that the LOD process that had been started by the 1171st was unnecessary – the LOD had been initiated in New Mexico and was not the responsibility of the Michigan Army National Guard. It was a Guard Bureau matter and would be decided by Guard Bureau in Washington DC.

LTC Michael Lee told Sarah he would be helping to resolve the matter. In the meantime, Jimison was told to just sit tight and wait.

Jimison’s LOD was approved on 10 September 2007, after six months of waiting.

With the LOD approved, Jimison was told he would be able to get medical care for his injury. He would also be reimbursed for medical costs incurred to date, as well as be eligible for incapacitation pay and other allowances.

SSG Grover indicated that Jimison needed to visit his doctor to get the next steps for treatment and relay that information back to the unit, and seek authorization for the care prescribed.

Jimison visited his doctor on 13 September 2007. The next steps prescribed were an epidural, a referral to a pain management clinic, and a neurosurgical consult. The unit has yet to provide authorization for this treatment. Instead, they have provided authorization for three family practice visits and an MRI.

When questioning this authorization, Jimison was dressed down for requesting to receive the care that he had told SSG Grover he required, per his doctor’s visit on 13 September 2007.

As of this writing, the situation has not been resolved. Jimison is in constant, excruciating pain. He cannot walk without a cane. The doctor he has consulted over the past six months has indicated that because the injury has gone untreated so long the symptoms are permanent. Now unable to serve, as well as unable to work, Jimison is left to do little else than hurry up and wait.

Government or media inquires, please contact:
Sarah Hutchinson
info@thebrokensoldier.com