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

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.

www.kentucky.com...

So, this is what the military has to look forward to when they are required to be injected with the swine flu vaccine. No telling how many will be injured with such a thing, yet the military will not compensate for the ramifications of their policies.

I wonder how many more military are being denied compensation for such things.



[edit on 8/30/2009 by Jessicamsa]

Probably something to do with the vaccine not being mandatory - smart move by the military PTB... They have a nice legal back door to bolt through. They must be aware of the possible (and given the numbers of people having the vaccine - inevitable) dangers of the jabs.

Do you have a link to the source?

Anyways, it is not uncommon for the VA to deny vets even if they have proof it is military related.

Just part of the system. Usually, if a vet continues their fight, they are successful in getting compensation.

Same thing happened when they gave the anthrax vaccinations a decade ago.

I'm not suprised at all but this was the smallpox vaccine. I'm sure many cases like this will happen with the swine flu vaccine also.

[edit on 30-8-2009 by Chovy]

Now And Then is right. They will never make the vaccine mandatory for the very reason they are using against him now. They need the loophole of voluntarism, and they won't give it up, IMO.

My wife recently called one of our local FEMA reps, with a question about the swine flu vaccine being mandatory. He said that he would highly recommend getting this vaccine, but that it wouldn't be mandatory, "To each his own, but I must leave you with a strong word of warning." he said. What that "must" means is anyone's guess, but the point is that I think the swine flu vaccine - and every other vaccine - will always be voluntary for the same reason he's being denied now.

They will always need the 'voluntary' loophole so they won't ever have to pay compensation for something they know will harm many.

Unfortunately, he will never be paid by the Veterans Administration for this problem, but I wonder if he or his guardians/caregivers know there are alternatives meant to take up the slack...or at least available to do the job.

Indeed, it is Social Security's policy to deny every claim as well. However, I believe in this case, he's got more chance with disability than with VA, because as others have cited, how many others would they wind up paying if this boy is compensated either monetarily or medically by the VA?

They will leave this one to others, and keep their loophole. Either that, or they'll make it mandatory for every single person on earth, and never pay for hardship or detriment in any case as they've already proven they'll not have the vaccine makers being made responsible either...they've got immunity.

Or maybe they're just trying to hype up this story as much as possible to get Obama's NHS passed as quickly as they can manifest plausibly.