Scandal of treatment for wounded Iraq veterans (Britain)

[cal04]

· Soldiers 'denied proper hospital care'
· Letters reveal anguish of families
A shocking picture of neglect and the appalling treatment of wounded British troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan emerged last night in a remarkable series of letters from soldiers' families obtained by The Observer.

The sheaf of complaints, passed on by deeply alarmed senior military sources, claims that soldiers have been deprived of adequate pain relief and emotional support, and in some cases are unable to sleep because of night time noise in the NHS facilities caring for them.

The NHS last night said that it had launched an inquiry into the complaints.

One letter sent to the MoD and NHS managers reveals how the youngest British soldier wounded in Iraq, Jamie Cooper, was forced to spend a night lying in his own faeces after staff at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital allowed his colostomy bag to overflow. On another occasion his medical air mattress was allowed to deflate, leaving him in 'considerable pain' overnight despite an alarm going off.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031200,00.html

[brentspeak]

1. Outrageous. Infuriating.

[IndianaGreen]

2. I see that warmongering is not the only thing that Tony Blair has in common with Bush

Wounded and psychologically damaged combat veterans are discarded like spent commodities on both sides of the Atlantic.

[ninkasi]

3. That's what I think, too

Both Bush and his poodle have caused the U.S. and Great Britain to earn the scorn of the rest of the world. The conditions our wounded troops and vets are coping with are shameful, and unforgivable. Bush is destroying this country much more thoroughly than any terrorist could do.