PTSD veterans get review after Madigan Army Medical Center changes diagnosis

Army is reviewing Madigan's reversal of PTSD diagnoses
The Army plans to review a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatric team that reversed the PTSD diagnoses of more than a dozen soldiers, potentially weakening their case to receive a medical retirement.

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Army is reviewing the actions of a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatric team that reversed the diagnoses of more than a dozen soldiers previously found to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

All these soldiers have been under consideration for medical retirement, which offers considerably more financial benefits than alternative forms of discharge.

Some have complained that doctors at the hospital, south of Tacoma on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, unfairly stripped them of the PTSD diagnoses, which would help qualify them for a medical retirement, and instead tagged them as malingerers.

In an unusual intervention, the office of the Army Surgeon General has arranged for the soldiers to fly to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where they are scheduled to be examined by another team of Army doctors.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., confirmed details of the review to The Seattle Times.
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