Lt. Col. Peter Matsuura: "it tears your heart out" (our injured troops)

[donsu]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/World/landstuhl_040808.html

These are real doctors and nurses at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, facing horrors seldom seen by the American public — already over 12,000 battlefield casualties from Iraq.

-snip-

"You walk in and your see young kids blown apart," says Col. Bernie Roth, who works in the intensive care unit. "Sometimes half their brain is gone, arms gone, legs gone. It's hard, it's really hard."

-snip-

Lt. Col. Peter Matsuura is an Army reservist who gave up his private practice in Hawaii for three months to help out at Landstuhl.

"It's hard to see these kids come in, and it tears your heart out," he says while operating on a badly injured leg. "I thought I saw a lot of trauma when I was in training, but there's nothing compared to this."

-snip-

Another doctor, Lt. Col. Larry Lepler, has just made such a call to a distraught mother back in the U.S. He is fighting back tears. I ask him what kind of emotion he was dealing with on the other end of that phone line.

He pauses and takes a deep breath.

"Ah, the mother was crying. It's difficult for me," he says, his eyes watering.

"None of us are going to leave here the people we were when we came here," Lt. Col. Harvey adds. "There's a tremendous cost of caring."
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12,000 plus damaged people so the bushgang can stuff their pockets with money and oil and rule the world.

[arbusto_baboso]

1. Yeah, and this has gone largely unreported by the whore media..

who continually focus on the numbers of dead.

Not all the combat deaths result in bodies on the battlefield or OR table. Many of the dead come back home, and most people around them think they're still alive.

But even if you're lucky enough to come back in one piece, seeing combat will leave you changed forever. You can never again be who you once were.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Is the number really at 12000 - a portion of whom will be wandering

the streets, alleys, and parking lots for decades.

What is the medical cost of caring for 12000 innocents for the rest of their lives?

How is our Secretary of Peace doing? Any progress?

I've become a person of sorrow and sarcasm. The hypocrisy of the pillagers of humanity in our country sickens me. The ignorance of citizen victims who refuse to acknowledge the scam on us sickens me.

[giant_robot]

3. And yet VA hospitals are being closed.

Who will care for for 12,000+ disabled veterans? I'm caught between sadness, disgust, and rage.

[donsu]

4. and states are closing down many medical/social programs

for lack of money. last year Fl. closed a program that helps people who have lost limbs.

insane.

[RetroLounge]

5. OMG! 12,000 Battlefield Casualties?

Why has this number not been reported far and wide?

Oh, yeah, the Liberal Media. Never mind...

RL

[Tsiyu]

6. We have only Begun

to see the extreme heartache and misery of War. This action in Iraq was senseless and so irresponsible.

Zell Miller ain't saying he feels anybody's pain now, is he? All of the leaders of this nation who led us into this war should hang their heads in shame.

And we now have a load of kids unable to protect us here. And an administration SCREAMING that we are less safe now than ever. It is mind-boggling.

[slojim240]

7. Well, if they won't show us flag-drapped coffins will they show us the

injured troops? I think not. Just one small glimpse of those coffins would be enough to turn most Americans against Bush and his immoral and unprovoked war.