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.
The hangup? His injuries were caused by the vaccine.
VA won't pay benefits to Marine injured by vaccine
The US military said it killed six men on Sunday in a strike on an alleged...
For some U.S. military commanders, the emerging war in Iran is part of a biblical plan...
The U.S. torpedoing of an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka this week may have violated the...
After threatening to sever ties with Scouting America and kick the youth group off military bases...
