Medical history of my spine injuries

In response to clarifications requested following my reddit post which includes a case summary and my earlier article, I have put together a medical history of my spine injuries. 

No spine injury prior to serving national service.  Aug 2006 - First service injury (“2006 Injury”) while serving full-time national service. I was subsequently issued a service injury certificate, for two prolapsed discs L4/5 and L5/S1, after filing a service injury report which included a statement being taken from me. Jun 2012 - MINDEF confirmed 15% permanent disability (“PD”) attributed to the 2006 Injury. I was working full-time as a MOE teacher before Jan 2015. Jan 2015 - Second service injury (“2015 Injury”) on the first day of in-camp training, after my SGH and SAF medical certificates were amended. The post-injury MRI confirmed that one of the discs worsened while the other remained the same. This suggested a traumatic etiology.  May 2015 - I went for surgery as there is no improvement in my condition despite being placed on medical leave.  Aug 2015 - I was issued a service injury certificate even though no service injury report was filed yet, i.e., no statement was taken from me. This was in spite of my queries regarding the report form and the investigation. I was on medical leave from Jan 2015 to Aug 2015. I returned to my school in Aug 2015 but was not given any teaching work since the school year was about to end.  My symptoms returned in the first week of 2016. After consulting a specialist, he opined that I was not suited to be a school teacher. Following the medical opinion, I resigned in March 2016. I left for New Zealand in July 2016. Mar 2019 - MINDEF confirmed a 10% PD attributed to the 2006 Injury (which is lower than the 15% PD assessment in 2012) and a 0% PD attributed to the 2015 Injury. MINDEF therefore concluded no additional award was payable under PD. MINDEF started to refer to the 2006 Injury as a pre-existing condition. Nov 2019 - I filed an appeal to MINDEF Compensation Board for a higher award. For the last few years, I have been employed on a part-time basis (0.25 full-time equivalent) and work mostly from home. Sep 2023 - The compensation Board ruled an additional 5% PD attributed to the 2015 Injury. In making this ruling, I believe the Board would have carefully considered the full circumstances.

A non-zero PD percentage assessed for the 2015 Injury is a precondition in order to be considered for an additional award. The 2015 Injury would also need to be "an injury received under exceptional circumstances", such as, negligence by MINDEF officers. The Compensation Board has however made no ruling on the matter of negligence by MINDEF officers.

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