U.S. Soldiers Face Medical Neglect After Iranian Drone Strike
U.S. troops wounded in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait are reportedly receiving inadequate care due to bureaucratic issues and lack of medical facilities.
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Dozens of U.S. soldiers wounded in a March 1 Iranian drone strike in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait are reportedly receiving inadequate medical care, according to an Associated Press report. The AP highlighted bureaucratic red tape, failure to recognize serious injuries, and a lack of planning for transporting the injured to hospitals as key issues service members deployed in the Middle East are facing.
Medical System Fails Wounded Troops
Army Lt. Col. Arturo Lincón was one of the multiple service members hit by shrapnel during the attack. A piece of metal lodged into his left jaw and another sliced his salivary gland, bouncing off his jaw, piercing the back of his neck, and ultimately severing an artery before lodging in a vertebrae. The damaged artery put him at risk for a stroke. However, this was not considered severe enough for him to be sent to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the closest major military facility. Instead, he was sent to nearby Army barracks and told to schedule outpatient appointments. He went days without pain medication.
Delays and Mismanagement in Care
Another soldier who had shrapnel removed from his head, Major Stephen Ramsbottom, had to wait over four months for his MRI results. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rodney Bearman, who had shrapnel embedded from his face to his legs, was briefly seen by Kuwaiti doctors, then sent to the home of a U.S. government employee. The missile attacks from Iran made evacuation flights risky.
Approximately ten days after the attack, soldiers, including Bearman, who could hardly eat or lie down, were loaded on a cargo plane bound for Germany. Upon arrival, Bearman discovered they were not documented as wounded in combat and would not be hospitalized—allegedly due to a coding error. Bearman, who has served in the military for over three decades, said, “Never did I think that if I was wounded that these things would happen … some sacred trust that I thought would never be broken was broken.”
Response from Pentagon and CENTCOM
The Pentagon and the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. With years of attempted troop drawdown in the Middle East, there are no major U.S.-run medical facilities in the region, exacerbating the challenges faced by the wounded soldiers.
Source: Daily Caller
