By: Laura Nichols

The VA won’t pay for one Marine’s injury.

Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez deployed to Iraq in 2006 when he was 20 years-old. He enlisted in the Marine Corps fresh out of high school and was enthusiastic about serving to protect the lives of others. He never thought that he would almost lose his own life from something as routine as a vaccination.

“I started having trouble walking,” Lopez said. “There was a numbness that started in my feet and gradually worked it’s way up.”

After being overseas only nine days Lopez had trouble with his legs tingling. Literally overnight he was paralyzed. The sensation worked its way up and soon he couldn’t use his arms.

“When the morning came everyone woke up and found me laying on the floor and I wasn’t able to move my legs at all,” he described.

Doctors in Balad, Iraq scrambled to find out the medical mystery taking over Joe’s body.

“The next day they sent him to Germany and I got a call from the doctor in Germany who told me that they weren’t sure if he was going to make it. And they wondered if I could come to Germany and try to get him to respond to me,” Joe’s mom, Barbara Lopez said.

Joe was on life support and doctors had no choice but to put him in a medically-induced coma. Barbara and her older son Steven flew to Germany to find out shocking news.

“Well when I fist woke up they said the vaccine caused your body to attack itself,” Joe said.

The smallpox vaccine that Joe got from the Department of Defense just days before deployment was the reason for it all. Joe had an adverse reaction causing incredible damage. The bottom line: his immune system was eating away at his nervous system causing the nerves to deteriorate.

The family flew to Bethesda Hospital in Maryland where Joe remained in the ICU for three weeks. Doctors argued over what treatment to give him, but eventually decided on the controversial IVIG treatment. It slowly worked bringing him out of the coma.

“They told me he might be a vegetable,” Barbara said. “They wanted me to watch for brain damage and question him…see what he remembered…she if he was still him.”

Each day she would question him and have him blink once for the answer yes and twice for no. Days later he started talking. The greatest news was that Joe remembered who he was and everything about his life.

Despite this good news Joe had another huge obstacle to overcome.

“One of my doctors came and said you’ll never be able to walk again,” he said.

However, slowly Joe started rebuilding his strength. He came back to his hometown of Springfield and endured intense physical therapy. He also spent more than a year in a wheelchair.

“No one ever thinks they’ll be in a wheelchair, and I’ve always had that ‘it’s not going to happen to me’ mentality. Now it’s the opposite,” Joe said.

Today Joe can walk but not for very far or for very long. He takes 10 to 15 pills each day and will need to for the rest of his life. The VA paid for his medical bills but there is more to the story.

The Lopez family had thousands of dollars in non-medical bills – and the VA refuses to pay. Barbara had to leave her job for several months to care for Joe and they had to install a wheelchair lift in their home. There are also other expenses Joe will have for the rest of his life that Barbara worries about. After speaking with other Marine and their falsie she heard about TSGLI compensation.

TSGLI is a government program that is designed to compensate injured service members for injury form traumatic events. To the dismay of his family, Joe was denied coverage.

The VA Department of Insurance Chairman, Stephen Wurtz, says Joe was denied because his injury didn’t come from a traumatic combat event, but from a needle. He also said the government can’t afford to cover injuries from vaccines.

“Any additional claims under TSGLI are paid by the government, and the government would now be paying that many more claims during a period of conflict,” Wurtz commented.

Lopez said what upset him even more is the fact that they amended the TSGLI bill after he applied to specifically disqualify vaccine injuries form compensation. The Lopezes visited Missouri U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill to explain their fight for fair compensation. McCaskill is now working on a bill that would extend coverage to service members injured by vaccines.

“It would give him the same coverage and frankly I really think we need to take care of this young man and his family,” Sen. McCaskill said in a satellite interview with KOMU. “He was willing to take care of us.”

Through all of this Joe is not just sitting around. He now races a specially made hand cycle in the Marine Corps Marathon each October to raise money for other Marine families. His mom, Barbara participates in the 10K.

Reflecting back on his journey to recovery the past three years Joe said the hardest part is the unknown: “Just the not knowing. Not knowing if I would ever walk again.”

The love and support of his mother Barbara was constant through all that unknown.

“She was the first person I saw when I woke up, and she was there everyday,” said Joe.

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