VA won't pay benefits to Marine whose injuries came from vaccine

[babylonsister]

VA won't pay benefits to Marine whose injuries came from vaccine

By David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — It wasn't a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez three years ago after nine days in Iraq.

It was an injection into his arm before his unit left the states.

The then 20-year-old Marine from Springfield, Mo., suffered a rare adverse reaction to the smallpox vaccine. While the vaccine isn't mandatory, the military strongly encourages troops to take it.

However, it left Lopez in a coma, unable for a time to breathe on his own and paralyzed for weeks. Now he can walk, but with a limp. He has to wear a urine bag constantly, has short-term memory loss and must swallow 15 pills daily to control leg spasms and other ailments.

And even though his medical problems wouldn't have occurred if he hadn't been deployed, Lopez doesn't qualify for a special government benefit of as much as $100,000 for troops who suffer traumatic injuries.

The hangup? His injuries were caused by the vaccine.

"I could have easily died, or not been able to walk because of that," Lopez said. "It destroyed my world. It was pretty traumatic to me."

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/74566.html

[tazkcmo]

1. His family needs to sue the %#@!! out of the VA...

...the vaccine manufacturer, et al. The service member cannot sue I'm pretty sure but his parents can on his behalf. Total BS.

[dgibby]

2. If I read the article correctly,

this is a law, and the VA is following the law. That's why there's an effort in Congress to amend the law. VA's hands are tied until that's done, unfortunately for that vet.

Also, although severe and rare, relatively, these are well known and published side effects from many types of vaccines. I suspect he probably was suffering from G.B.(gullion-barre syndrome), which affects the central nervous system and can sometimes result in lingering paralysis and other CNS difficulties. Other known neuro side effects are meningitis, encephalitis,etc.