2023-10-17 01:35:18
When José Carlos and his cousin made the decision to define their military situation, joining the Army, they did not imagine that one would end up amputated and the other murdered, on the same day, in the same attack by the Clan de Golfo, in Antioquia. The barbarity of Frontinus, on April 19, 2022. Five other soldiers were shot down.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical attention or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
The tragedy turned him into a hero, a survivor, but only for three months. José Carlos was regarding to finish his military service when the attack occurred. They took him to the Frontino hospital, then to Medellín. More than five surgeries and a rehabilitation process. At 22 years old he had to learn to walk once more. But the bureaucracy of the military health system mutilated him for the second time.
“When I completed 18 months of military service, I was still in therapy, but they disenrolled me from the system. I mightn’t make appointments, medications, or treatment. Neither does the monthly bonus. I was in Bogotá, far from my family, alone, without anything to eat and without how to move,” José Carlos told SEMANA, to reveal his other war, now legal, once morest the direction of Military Health.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical care or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
Without health care, without legs and in an unknown city, José Carlos tied himself to a cot, in the veterans rehabilitation unit, so as not to be left on the street. The rest was borne by his family, who from a town in Córdoba, raised money to pay for the food of this amputated hero, who also had his rehabilitation amputated.
With his half body, José Carlos began a crusade to beg the Health Directorate not to abandon him, to help him with treatment. He left half his life to the Army and had the right to medical care, compensation and a disability pension. The response of Military Health was another attack.
With this sentence from the Health Directorate of the Military Forces and faced with the impossibility of carrying out medical examinations or treatments, due to being disaffiliated from the military health system, José Carlos was left out of any possibility of aspiring to a pension or recognition. for half of the body he left on the roads of Frontino, in Antioquia, following the attack.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical care or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
“I mightn’t do anything, that’s why I fell behind in the rehabilitation process, so I mightn’t make appointments, I mightn’t do anything. Just some medical concepts. They took away my bonus and medical service, the minimum to start the procedures for pension or compensation,” said the soldier.
José Carlos, who thought regarding pursuing a military career, was a pariah in the Army, half a man who might not carry a rifle and might not claim the rights acquired when he swore the flag, much less return home, to the life they had before. enlist in defense of the homeland. His honor was mutilated.
“Every three months they had to ask them to activate the service, and they did it whenever they felt like it, it was impossible. Letters, documents, requests begging for the service, to request the appointments that they themselves demand when requesting the medical board that defines the pension or compensation,” explained José Carlos.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical attention or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
It was at that moment that José Carlos realized that he was not alone in the other war waged by the mutilated soldiers of the Army. He met a group of lawyers who not only helped him with the guardianship, but also accompanied him throughout the process until he got what 40 other soldiers have been begging for: a disability pension.
“There are many problems for these soldiers, because the Army denies medical treatment and the problem is that when they finish providing military service they are removed from medical care, but the Army has an obligation to provide medical services, but that is not the case. “said Natalia Marín, the lawyer who, along with other defenders, now became the legal prosthesis for the mutilated soldiers.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical attention or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
Lawyer Marín assured that the situation of José Carlos, despite having been the victim of a terrorist attack with so many deaths and so publicized by the media, became one more fact for Military Health, another figure in the formats of the paperwork that seems to have the vocation of preventing soldiers from accessing their rights.
“Many soldiers are left in the dark regarding medical procedures, because they live too far away to get the exams, they are not allowed to stay at Army transit points… they do not even receive them and lawyers, like us, have to cover these expenses, food , accommodations so they can keep medical appointments, which they sometimes cancel. “They don’t even give them transportation,” explained the lawyer, who assured that they assist at least 40 soldiers with the same problem and the same needs.
The law is clear on these matters of disability pension and compensation in the public force and the Health Directorate applies it to the letter. But the procedures, medical appointments and evaluations, before the medical board that defines these financial reparations, seem selective.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical care or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
The uniformed men themselves, in the Military Forces, warn that the adventures of the soldiers, in the midst of poverty and needs, are not suffered by the officers, such as generals, who following a life in the force obtain appointments and exams in a matter of days and the compensation amounts to millions.
“There is a long process with medical treatment that requires guardianship, then disrespected, nothing matters. When requesting the date for the medical board, it is not granted, it is denied. More than 40 soldiers with that problem…. If following the withdrawal they have not made the medical record, they lose the opportunity,” said lawyer Marín.
Military Health seems to forget that many soldiers, who end up mutilated in compliance with their oath to the Homeland, live in remote areas of the country, far from any military medical center, from even the possibility of internet or telephone to make appointments or even find out regarding that the Army discarded them.
Amputee soldiers line up at the Health Directorate for medical attention or a pension. They denounce paperwork. | Photo: Anonymous Author
“It seems that the system is designed to prevent victim soldiers from accessing basic services, medical appointments. At times it is impossible to comply, even the responses from Health seem to be copied, they all answer the same thing without stopping to look at the contexts and where these victims are,” said the lawyer.
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