Iraq War Victim Loses His Final Battle

[struggle4progress]

By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: March 6, 2009

Sgt. Daniel Tallouzi, 24, of the United States Army, died on Saturday night, Feb. 28, at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. He had never recovered from a combat wound he received in September 2006 while stationed in Iraq, a piece of shrapnel that pierced his brain and left him in a vegetative state.

The story of his traumatic brain injury — considered the signature wound of the Iraq war — and the efforts to provide him with rehabilitative care attracted national attention in the media .. because of the perseverance of his mother, Mary Tallouzi.

Ms. Tallouzi, 54, was one of a handful of mothers of severely wounded soldiers who publicly challenged the care their sons were receiving in Veterans Affairs hospitals, and won the right to have them treated in private facilities, like the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J., where Sergeant Tallouzi spent seven months, through April 2008.

Ms. Tallouzi, a single parent who gave up her job as an insurance claims processor to oversee her son’s care these last two and a half years, then took him home to their native Albuquerque, where he spent nine months at another private rehab center. In January this year, they moved into a three-bedroom home in suburban Rio Rancho, specially built for Sergeant Tallouzi’s needs, that Ms. Tallouzi said was being financed from V.A. benefits and her son’s military insurance ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/nyregion/long-island/08Rvet.html

[FrenchieCat]

1. Very sad story.....

one of too many. :(

RIP Sgt. Daniel Tallouzi.

[ejpoeta]

2. the way the injured are treated is appalling!! i mean, how can anyone

trust the government to keep them safe and then if they get hurt, take care of them. it's a sorry state of affairs. my condolences to the families of these soldiers.