spacewrench

Thanks very much for this response! My guy's skydiving career was ended by a landing that damaged one of his knees, and he had a few other lower-extremity injuries documented during his service. I'm hoping to track down a doctor in South Carolina with experience in this type of injury, who can support an etiology with analysis of the stresses involved. I'm well aware that you can find some doctor to say anything you want, but I'm not that kind of lawyer. I'm just trying to obtain a more detailed analysis than the first VA doctor provided ("pt never complained during service, so he must not have had any injury.") (My apologies if you were not implying that my client or I are trying to cheat the system by hiring a "plaintiff's doctor." The VA, by statute, employs a fairly liberal standard of proof, so it's not like I have to find a ringer doctor to establish that skydiving caused my client's back problems "beyond a reasonable doubt.") Thanks again.

Hi Jerry. Thanks for the pointer...do you think you could get the doc's name to me somehow? (I've got the 1-year thing sorted out... It's a bit more complicated than that, but that was the initial thing I had to take care of. Now I just need to provide some info to suggest that the equipment & conditions back in the day were capable of / likely to cause chronic injury, not just acute injury. Sort of like machine gunners and certain other jobs, I think -- the VA just assumes they have hearing loss, because it's so common and not worth it for them to fight every claim.)

Hi, I'm an attorney in Portland, Oregon, and I'm helping a U.S. veteran with his disability claim. My veteran was a very active skydiver with the Army demonstration team in the 70's, and he currently has back problems. I'd like to find a doctor who's familiar with the magnitude & effects of opening shocks, landing and so on, to help me understand & explain the injuries to the VA. I'm doing this work pro bono, but I can offer a small payment if necessary. Is anybody here a doctor, or does anybody's doctor view skydiving as less reckless than, say, motorcycling (which is my self-destructive behavior!) Thanks!