Merc who was blown up in Iraq says he is not going back

[NNN0LHI]

http://news10now.com/content/health/healthy_living/?ArID=101094

Injured contractor talks about time in Iraq

<snip>Seoud said, "About an hour, hour and a half into the mission a bomb blew off right in my truck. I knew I was bleeding profusely, and I had another two dead guys and another injured. I tried to find my weapon because everytime you are hit by an IED, there's a small arms fire right after, an ambush, there's an attack."

<snip>The bomb fragments destroyed Seoud's colon, his right kidney. He has a lacerated liver, fractured shoulder and ribs.

<snip>After three years of working in Iraq and three times being hit by
IEDs, this time Seoud is not going back. He said the violence has gotten much worse.

He said, "It's a lost cause. I cannot put my family through what they went through."

[Schema Thing]

1. lol @ the url in your post

[tjwash]

2. I just caught that too...

:spray:

[madrchsod]

3. i really do`t care about what happened to him

he knew the risks and was paid well for his trouble.

[crikkett]

4. no VA health care for this guy!

It's a real problem!

Let me edit before I get flamed: the problem with going to Iraq as a contractor is that you don't even have lousy guaranteed health care if you get injured.

This guy's gonna have a hard time of it no matter how rich he may be.

[NNN0LHI]

5. With the low quality of VA and DOD health care I have read about he might be better off?

Shame.

Don

[crikkett]

6. shame on who? I GET the so-called low-quality VA healthcare

buddy, and it's so much better than not having anything.

VA health care is not low-quality everywhere. My primary care physician's specialty is head traumas and he's a hero. And a Stanford doc. I'm lucky as hell. My doctor's probably better than your doctor.

It's not the VA workers who are at fault. They're like teachers - under-appreciated, underfunded and underpaid.

[NNN0LHI]

8. It appears you have faired better than many others by your testimonial. I am glad for you

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070401-031851-5270r

US Iraq vets cheated out of medical care, disability pay

Sherwood Ross
Middle East Times
April 1, 2007

MIAMI, FL, USA -- Over the past six years, some 22,500 soldiers have been discharged on grounds of "personality disorder," a condition that can be claimed as having existed prior to their tour of duty, thereby absolving the Pentagon of its obligation to provide them with medical care and pay for their benefits.

Over the course of a six-month investigation published in The Nation magazine for April 9, reporter Joshua Kors learned of "multiple cases" in which "soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits."

According to Kors: "The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans' rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals." They say the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers "to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses."

With an average disability payment of about $8,900 a year and a medical cost of about $5,000 per year over a 40-year period per soldier, separating 22,500 of them would save the Pentagon $8-billion in disability pay and $4.5-billion in medical care over their lifetimes, the article says.

[hedgehog]

7. On the other hand - he could have walked away at any time,

and his comrades still have that choice. Too bad for the kid who signed up for the college money the month before George got his war.

[crikkett]

9. how true n/t