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In the years since his initial injury, my brother has been "reclassified" a number of times. He was initially classified as 100% disabled. Though his degree of disability has in fact worsened, he has been "reclassified" as 50% disabled, 80% disabled, etc. Many disabled friends and acquaintances from his time at WRAMC have had similar experiences with reclassification, and each reclassification requires a lengthy appeals process.

Additionally, every time my brother requires additional surgery/new prosthetic devices/repairs to his prosthetics, there is a mountain of paperwork to complete and many, many phone calls to be made to offices all over the country. He has had to learn to be a strong advocate for his own care and rights. A twenty-five year old has to navigate a system as complex as the VA simply so he can get out of bed and walk in the morning. I want to stress that the problem is not with the caring individuals working within the VA--it is with the structure of the system as a whole.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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My younger brother was gravely injured while deployed in Mosul, Iraq in September of 2003. He was just twenty years old, and had been in the military since June of 2001. He was driving a Humvee at the time of his injury-?a Humvee reinforced with only sandbags and old flak-jackets that he had duct-taped to the doors. His vehicle was hit by an IED. During the initial blast he lost the lower part of his right leg, suffered severe damage to his left leg, dislocated his left shoulder and broke his left arm in numerous places. He was treated at the site of the blast, moved to a field hospital within 50 minutes, to Kuwait within 24 hours, and then to Germany where his right leg was amputated at mid-thigh due to infection. After a week of being monitored and stabilized, he was flown to the United States and began thirteen long months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In July of 2007 he returned to Walter Reed and had his lower left leg amputated and spent another four months of his life in the hospital. In September of this year, my brother underwent another surgery to have his left leg amputated even higher, and he will have yet another round of surgeries early in 2009. We hope and pray that these will be the last. It is important for me to note what has filled his time when he has not been in the hospital: My brother has completed several marathons riding a hand-crank bike. He has become a skilled kayaker. He works full-time, and has been a student during the few breaks from the hospital when he has been able to complete a full term of school. In other words, he lives his life fully. During the entire time he was deployed, and in the five years since his injury, I have never--not even once--heard my brother utter a syllable of self-pity. He feels honored to have served his country, and what happened was, to him, always a possibility. I feel honored to know him.

This war, and the veterans of it, are different than the veterans of other wars. Those who have been injured in the line of duty have survived due to the sophisticated medical care (both in the field and in our military hospitals) that was not available in previous conflicts. Men who served in previous conflicts would not have survived such terrible injuries. My brother, and so many others like him, are young, vibrant individuals with their entire lives still ahead of them. The reality, however, is that these veterans will require medical/mental health care for the rest of their lives. While the military and VA system is staffed by workers who are incredibly dedicated to serving veterans, they do not at this time have the manpower or resources to appropriately handle the overwhelming number of veterans who are in need of care. Our veterans desperately deserve and need a VA system that is well-funded, well-staffed. They should not have to battle bureaucracy and miles of red tape to receive the most basic of services.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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