Scott Knock — army medic, husband, dad

A 2010 helicopter crash in Afghanistan left 24-year-old Scott Knock of Fort Collins with shrapnel embedded in his body. Army doctors in Texas quickly took care of that, but they couldn’t find the cause of residual muscle and nerve spasms that almost incapacitated the Army medic.

Scott came home to Colorado and consulted five different doctors. “Neurologist, orthopedic doctors, spine doctors — you name it, I saw them.” The muscle and nerve spasms “felt like someone was taking a cattle prod to my arm. They radiated up into my neck and caused instant headache,” he said. A pain management specialist near Loveland finally connected the dots and sent him to Dr. Richard Sanders, who then set him up with Dr. Stephen Annest.

November 1, 2012, almost two years to the day after his injury, Scott had surgery after Dr. Annest’s suspicion of neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) had been confirmed: “Scott’s muscles compressed the nerves so much they wouldn’t allow the muscles to [loosen].”

“About a month later I was already moving a lot better. Dr. Annest had told me not to expect anything for another six months but I was already feeling on top of the world,” Scott said. And though Scott has not regained full feeling in his arm and hand, he believes he is making good progress. “I just wanted the surgery to be a little bit successful but Dr. Annest far outreached my expectations,” Scott added.

After six months of rehab and physical therapy, Scott is working hard at strength training so that he can go back to full active duty in the Army. He currently works as a hazmat technician for a Boulder pharmaceutical company and is in the National Guard.

“It’s awesome to see his progress,” said Scott’s wife, Kristina. “He can pick up our daughter. When he first came home with his injury, he couldn’t even hold our eight-month-old daughter.”