Soldier feels abandoned by government after losing arm

[UpInArms]

http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/170930

Great Bend — Kris Atherton says he knows from experience that the U.S. government wasn't ready to deal with military veterans wounded in Iraq.

Atherton, 24, of Great Bend, retired from the Army after losing his left arm last July while driving a Humvee in Baghdad. An artillery explosion shattered the bones in his arms and shook his confidence that his government was prepared to deal with the wounded.

"I guess the bones were fractured so severely that it couldn't be saved," Atherton said. "But no one told me that. I was in a Black Hawk helicopter on the way to my first hospital when I looked down and my left arm was gone. That's how I found out about it."

Atherton was treated in hospitals in Kuwait and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. While he was learning to live with one arm, he also was trying to figure out how to get by on less money, the difference between the Army payroll and the Veterans Affairs disability payroll.

...more...

[mia]

1. thanks for posting Kris' story -

As of today, 4327 American soldiers have been wounded in Iraq.
The death toll is at 799.

http://www.lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

[UpInArms]

2. Welcome to DU mia!

:hi:

Lives ruined, forever changed - this man, his wife, his child...

the dead, the maimed, the destroyed - how long will our country support the madness?

[mia]

4. Thanks for the welcome UpInArms!

Americans need to see the faces of our injured soldiers on prime time TV.

[maddezmom]

3. brings it all into reality....

very sad :(

[Just Me]

5. It just hurts to see these "surviving" veterans get left behind.

They always do. :cry:

While demanded to give the ultimate sacrifice (most often to protect corporate greed), they come home to barely survive. It's so wrong!!!! Maybe, we should start demanding that all those who vote to send our people to war,...stand in the front lines of battle!!!