Perspectives

Average Joes and "G.I. Joes" deserve same high level of care television journalist received

War--the untold stories about the vets who come home, many mutilated, totally dismembered. And now, we hear of the new guesstimates about traumatic brain damage due to the incessant bombs.

Lungs damaged, shrapnel wounds and months--even years--of surgeries, rehabilitation are the untold costs of the war in Iraq. The long-term taxing structures to fund rehabilitation of military personnel wounded in Iraq will be astronomical.

The recent special about "ABC News" correspondent Bob Woodruff who was wounded by a roadside bomb while covering the war in Iraq--troubled the hearts of every parent, wife and family who saw his report and witnessed his life and death struggle and recovery.

His almost total recovery is a testament to the skill, perseverance and the best quality care--military and civilian--this nation has to offer.

But what about the average Joe--or even G.I. Joe--whose loving families must face the hazards of financial responsibility, virtually unarmed--in a financial sense--to deal with what their loved ones still must endure as they recover from their wounds. They don’t have the backing of a network news conglomerate to help defray the costs as Woodruff and his family did.

The Woodruff story makes glaringly clear the disparities of the healthcare system--both military and civilian. Our brave soldiers and Marines deserve no less than what Woodruff received; and that goes for the average man, woman and child who faces a health crisis. They all deserve high quality care and service of the same caliber as Woodruff, whose recovery is a miracle of God and a testament to the advances in medicine we’ve witnessed in the past two decades. We wish him well.

But we also wish well the military personnel and civilians who lie in hospital beds or struggle in rehabilitation. They deserve nothing less than the best.