From WJXT-TV, News4Jax:
Brain Injury Caused By Explosion; Family Seeking Right Health Care
Video link (editor's note: the story is worth watching)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Anthony Rogers suffered a brain injury while serving in Iraq, and his life hasn't been the same since.
Rogers has constant seizures, up to several times an hour.
"It's pretty horrible, and the two that you've seen in the last five minutes are very small compared to what I see on a daily basis," Rogers' mom Liza Catron said.
Catron said her son's seizures have practically ruined his life.
"A good day can be 40 seizures," Catron said. "A bad day can be as many as 130."
Catron said it all started during Rogers' third tour in Iraq almost three years ago.
There he suffered a bad brain injury from an explosion that caused his Humvee to flip.
Video: Brain Injury Caused By Explosion
That injury changed his life.
"Very, very smart kid," Catron said. "And now he sometimes can't tell me what he is trying to say."
Since then, Catron says her son hasn't been fighting the country's enemies, he's been fighting to get the right care.
"His neurologist and his seizure expert are phenomenal doctors," Catron said. "Until we got them, we were accomplishing more by bashing our head against the wall."
Catron said after years of looking for the right doctors, her son is now being forced to fight for something else -- his full disability payment.
Even with a letter from his doctor that says he can't work, Catron said the Veterans Administration will only give her son a 40 percent payment.
But she wants more than the money. She just wants her son's life to get better.
"Three weeks ago Monday he had a seizure so bad that he ended up in a pool of blood," Catron said. "He busted his mouth, busted his nose."
Catron said the family is now close to being broke because her son can't work.
She said she just started working with Sen. Bill Nelson's office, and they told her they will look into what's going on.
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