Seriously Injured Iraq War Vet Out of a Job, Home, Health Care

Seriously Injured Iraq War Vet Out of a Job, Home, Health Care

From mid-April to mid-May, Army Sgt. Vannessa Turner was in Iraq, where she worked digging ditches, cooking meals for the troops and driving a five-ton truck in a convoy that came under fire.

Then she collapsed in 130-degree heat. She had heart failure, went into a coma and was flown to a military hospital in Germany.

“Going down the hallway, I can hear the guy saying, ‘This soldier’s not going to make it,’ ” Turner told ABCNEWS. “And I’m trying my best to tell them, ‘Don’t let me die; I’m going to make this.’ I was trying to move my fingers and toes to tell them, ‘Don’t let me die.’ ”

Because the Army doctors thought Turner, 41, was going to die, they gave her a medical discharge, which would allow for greater death benefits for her 15-year-old daughter.

But then Turner recovered….

Recovered, But Homeless

When she got out of the hospital, however, she found herself out of the Army, out of a job and out of her home.

She couldn’t go back to the Army base in Germany where she’d been stationed before the war, so Turner and her daughter returned to their hometown of Boston, where they’ve been staying with a revolving cast of friends and family.

“My life was on the line in Iraq,” said Turner. “I almost died. I was in a coma for two days. And I come back and I’m living on a couch? That’s not right.”

And that’s not all.

When she asked the Army to ship her personal belongings back from the base in Germany, they told her she’d have to pay her own way back to collect them.

And when she went to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Boston, she was told she’d have to wait until October to get an appointment with the doctor she needed to see for her leg, which has nerve damage.

She’s Not Alone

Ron Conley, national commander of the American Legion, says these are not isolated incidents.

“This is a problem occurring with all veterans,” said Conley. “Current veterans that we’re making today are facing the same problem that previous veterans are facing. One of the messages that we sent to President Bush and the members of Congress is: We appropriate money to fight a war; there’s an additional cost to that war and that’s the health care of the men and women that fight that war.”

The Veterans Administration told ABCNEWS, “Mistakes were made.” And the Army said there needs to be some “tightening up” in the discharge process.

Turner recently went back into the hospital after suffering chest pains

She said the Army and the VA have become more helpful, after some prodding from the offices of Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, both Democrats from Massachusetts.

But despite all the problems, Turner said if the Army would have her back, she would re-enlist “in a heartbeat.” 

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