Brain-Injured Vets Face Gap In Care

Many Rehab Centers Say Government Hasn't Responded To Offers Of Help

(CBS)  Just six weeks into his tour of duty in Iraq, 25-year-old Sgt. Eric Edmundson of New Bern, N.C., called his father to say he was holding his own, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

"He mentioned to me, 'Don't worry Mom and Dad. If anything happens to me in the Army, they pay,'" says Ed Edmundson, Eric's father.

But two days later, a roadside bomb exploded while Eric was on patrol, severely wounding him. A subsequent heart attack cut off oxygen to his brain.

In intensive care at Walter Reed Hospital, Eric received outstanding treatment for his traumatic brain injury, but quickly, Ed says, the Army was "dead set" on discharging Eric into the hands of the Veterans Administration. While some relatives of the brain-injured say they are satisfied with the VA's care, Ed believed it was ill-equipped to handle his son's rehabilitation.

"That threw up a flag with me because my son felt the Army was going to take care of him," Ed says.

During the next year, Ed made hundreds of calls and wrote thousands of e-mails to Army brass, pressing to keep his son on active duty, his options open. Then, last September, a military case manager revealed that on active duty, Eric was eligible for private, civilian care.

"They loaded him up in a station wagon and brought him to our front door and asked, 'Can you help him?' And we said absolutely," says Dr. Joanne Smith.

Smith is the CEO of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She says the government has not responded to previous offers of help from world-renowned private care centers like hers.

After only two months, Eric has already regained some ability to communicate. Today, he remains the only Iraq combat veteran being helped there.

"First as a U.S. citizen, second as a physician, it is not only disappointing, it might be a travesty," Smith says.

Eric's time at the facility was extended for another three months. It's all thanks to a father, and a family, determined to hold the Army accountable for the fate of a son.

"He would have done it for me," Ed says, crying. "Eric is a soldier in the United States Army, combat-wounded. He deserved the best. He was going to get it."

CBS News has learned that, just last week, the Defense Department made a long-term commitment for soldiers suffering from severe brain injuries to get treatment at the Chicago facility. Keteyian reports that the center is expected to treat as many as 100 soldiers at a time.

[sclaires]

One reason the army doesn't want to let the family of brain injuried soldiers know that they are entitled to care in a private facility is that the money is coming out of their budget. And, of course, the budget is the main thing. As long as they can send a wounded veteran to a VA facility, then the cost is coming from the VA's budget. When the army can save money on medical care, that means that there is more money available to shift to other parts of the budget. It is about time that the army be made to inform the families of brain injuried soldiers that there are other options available.

[yoopermom]

There is something seriously wrong with a country that gives its prisoners better health care than our war heroes. If we can't afford to properly care for them when they come home, don't keep them in our own country. The men and women in the military deserve the best treatment for all they sacrifice for us.

[tibu987]

Nothing less than the very best should be the norm for our troops. That they are not cared for with anything less should be on the minds of all Americans. We demand that our veterans receive the finest care, the best doctors and nurses, the best prostheses, the best housing available in all circumstances. Anyone treating the veterans shabbily should be fired.
Let's make sure that this new reform is followed through.

[Syndicate]

There should be no expense spared. First our soldeirs should get the best possible equipment which they don't. Second they should get the best care. Something along the lines of what Di'ck chenney gets might be good enough for our soldiers. If any body knows of a group fighting for better care for vets please post it.

[michellem99-2009]

I saw this on the news and I don't like what war does to the whole person.I am a legally blind person. I live with a vet and my father is a vet. Forgive me here but I am in my 50s. I tell my vet best friend how many of this nations boys and girls are going fight for what a war that messes them up and Bush don't care. I am aware of 9/11. This nation is hell after what Bush has done. I felt safer before Bush ever got in the white House.And that's fact. He won't step up to the plate for you and yours after you done your apart in armed forces. I feel that this nation has let down everybody and her leaders are to blame. I live in fear since G W Bush is leader of this nation and that ain't right. This how I feel. Thank you. Thank you also for your part you did for us.

[williamwfh]

I was a marine and am a Vietnam veteran with many combat ribbons and citations. In 1967 I went to the VA in Denver after my mother prompted me many times to seek help. It is now 2007 and the VA has had me as a client from 1990 but did not help me until they were forced. My problem is also a brain injury and they always know that and played mental games with me and denied me benefits and medical help. What they are doing is beyond cruel and unusual treatment, but they should be prosecuted by courts not in the news. These posting go no where in resolving the problem. Next month - next year, or ten years from now it will always be the same.