US Army Reserve from Kentucky
May 2005 was injured with a VBIED while on a convoy mission. suffered a shattered jaw (mouth wired shut), injured shoulder, 3rd degree burn on back and small laceration on the back of head.
Arrived home June 2005 - wound on face began to leak and was sent to an Infectious Control Specialist by a civilian doctor– had a staff infection from the emergency surgery in Baghdad. On intravenous antibiotics for 8 weeks then had mouth unwired.
Army doctor would not do an MRI of shoulder. Recovered enough to go back and finish out tour with unit in September 2005. Returned to states in January 2006. Released from active duty in Feb 2006. Filed for VA disability in Feb 2006. Last month they finally did an MRI of shoulder and found 5 things wrong with it including tendonitis and torn rotator cuff. They also did a CT-scan of head/neck and found a bulging disc in neck, probably from the shrapnel impact.
In March someone said was eligible for unemployment so I filed. Received one check and was told they needed a letter from the doctor stating limitations. The VA doctor wrote a letter that said “because of the severity of his injury and the on-going treatment, he is unemployable.” So unemployment checks stopped immediately and receiving no compensation from anyone at this time.
VA rep has filed for shoulder with decreased mobility, 3rd degree burn, muscle spasm in face, PTSD and also that diabetes was aggravated b/c of injury. Numbers have not been stable since returning home and they now want to use insulin to control. Also have had stomach problems since returning home.
This is just a quick overview of what’s going on.