Posted on 08/19/2004 9:20:29 AM PDT by Shermy
(From April 2004)
WASHINGTON - John Kerry has a piece of shrapnel in his left thigh from an injury he suffered in the Vietnam War, his doctor said Friday during a review of 36 pages of the Democratic presidential candidate's military medical records.
The records shown briefly to reporters provided a few more details about the wounds that resulted in Kerry's three Purple Hearts and show that he suffered from respiratory ailments, a skin rash and a minor urinary tract infection during his four years in the Navy.
Kerry was wounded three times while commanding a swiftboat in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, an assignment that brought him close to enemy fire several times.
Some of Kerry's critics have questioned whether his injuries were serious enough to warrant three Purple Hearts and reassignment out of Vietnam. Kerry's doctor, Gerald Doyle, said he could not characterize the severity of the wounds since he didn't see them, but he noted that Kerry was in danger of serious injury several times.
Kerry got his first Purple Heart after he got shrapnel in his left arm above his elbow. Doyle said if the shrapnel had hit Kerry in the eye, it could have blinded him.
And Doyle said Kerry's third Purple Heart came from a dangerous situation on March 13, 1969, that could have been life-threatening. A mine had exploded near Kerry's swiftboat and enemy snipers were shooting around his boat.
According to notes from a military doctor who treated Kerry three hours later, Kerry was thrown against the bulkhead, resulting in contusions on his right forearm. A small piece of shrapnel was lodged in his left upper buttock. He was treated with a tetanus shot, topical dressing and an ace bandage and advised to apply warm soaks to his right forearm.
Kerry also was wounded by a piece of shrapnel on Feb. 20, 1969, this time on his left thigh. Doctors decided to leave the shrapnel in place rather than make a wider opening to remove it. Doctors removed damaged tissue and the entry wound was closed with sutures, and no infection developed around the shrapnel, according to the records.
Kerry jokingly told reporters aboard his campaign plane that the shrapnel hurts when it rains. He said tht although it was hot and burned at the time, he doesn't feel it now.
Kerry was diagnosed with pneumonia in September 1966 and had an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis during his time in the military. The records also show Kerry had pneumonia in 1965 before his enlistment. Doyle said Kerry has hay fever and allergies to pollen and mold and is probably predisposed to pneumonia. Doyle said Kerry had pneumonia at least once since his time in Vietnam, but he usually recovers quickly from respiratory ailments because his immune system is healthy.
Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan interrupted Doyle to ask that he only comment on Kerry's medical records in the military, noting that the doctor had already issued a letter outlining Kerry's health during the 18 years that he has treated the senator.
Doyle said the skin rash on Kerry's chest, arms and legs in 1967 was probably an inflammation of hair follicles from the warm weather in San Diego, where he trained before going to Vietnam. It was treated with a steroid cream.
Two days after Kerry was treated for the rash, doctors noted that Kerry reported coughing and other symptoms and requested a chest X-ray. "This is a very aggressive patient," the medical notes say. Doyle said he couldn't know what that meant, but speculated Kerry might have insisted on getting the X-ray since he had pneumonia a few months earlier.
This week the campaign has posted on its Web site more than 200 pages of information about Kerry's military record. The campaign said when the Navy sent Kerry his military file, it did not include his medical records, and those shown to reporters Friday were copies that Kerry had in his personal files.
The Kerry campaign allowed 19 reporters who travel with Kerry to talk to his doctor and view the medical file for about 30 minutes. Reporters had to sign the file in and out and were not allowed to take a copy.
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter noted that the 30-minute review was 10 minutes longer than reporters had with President Bush's military medical files. She said the campaign will not release the record to the public because "we don't consider this information to be public in the first place."
Also on Friday, Kerry announced a "Contract with America's Middle Class" during a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The contract was a compilation of ideas that Kerry has been touting on the campaign trail - a new plan to win the war, create 10 million jobs, cut middle class taxes and streamline government.
Kerry also had a private meeting with Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to former President Carter, at Kerry's home in Georgetown.
The partial filling I lost out of my lower molar 3 weeks ago is bigger than hanoi john's piece of shrapnel!
Hey! I've had asthma all my life, and I got a rash on my ankle about a month ago. True, he's got me beat on the UTI, goldurnit, but don't you think I deserve a medal for my heroism?
Why no mention of this shrapnel still being in him...just the thigh is mentioned in the present tense?
males with urinary tract infections, hmm sounds like the corpsman gave the officer a pass on not reporting it as the clap which it probally was. In 8 years as a clinical hospital corpsman, i never once saw a male with a urinary tract infection that wasnt an STD. i know it happens, but its not that common. wonder if thats what he got a purple heart for?
The report for February 1969 reports "shrapnel"
I guess I was getting confused between lower buttocks and thigh. From Kerry's view point it probably better to say you got hit in the thigh than to say you got hit in the ass, although ass maybe the medically correct term.
So could running with scissors in your hand, or so my mom said.....
Who gives a damn ... it's not going to make him a better President.
LOL! Let me assure you, Minneapolis traffic is a piece of cake compared to the insanity of California! :)
I agree completely that the statement that Kerry was in danger of serious injury was dumbass! Geez! Like the shrapnel wound in his arm being lucky because it might have hit his eye! OMG! And if my aunt was a man, he would be my uncle!!! Duh!
Why not? He's got the record and presumably he's had a look at the scars. Quite easy to admit they were not severe.
The doctor knows he didn't spend one night in the hospital...I think an imbecile could guess this qualifies as "not severe".
and if gramma had wheels she'd be a wagon...
(He used to do homeland security for New Jersey.)
And, if it had hit him in the heart, it could have killed him.
Neither happened.
I couldn't read much of this drivel, but will enjoy the replies.
No, you can't be President unless the shrapnel was encircled with rice and came from a pile of rice you blew up yourself! LOL! Kerry is a pathetic critter.
" Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan interrupted Doyle to ask that he only comment on Kerry's medical records in the military,
noting that the doctor had already issued a letter outlining Kerry's health during the 18 years that he has treated the senator. "
The campaign is very nervous about Kerry's health records.
VP Cheney's physicians have given press conferences discussing his cardiac health.
The Kerry campaign nervously trots out Kerry's internist to proclaim that Kerry is completely healthy.
Imagine the Cheney camp bringing out an internist to pronounce Cheney to be in excellent cardiac health.
The media would demand that Cheney produce his cardiologist.
But, they allow the Kerry campaign to hide Kerry's oncologist.
And the radiologist who did Kerry's lung scan in Feb.
And I am sure that in Kerry's history there is a psychiatrist or two.
"...same spot as that CIA hat."
I think Poseur Kerry has more hidden compartments in his mind than any brief case could ever contain.
of which he had no first hand knowledge and was fed information.
This is actually important, since the press made a BIG deal out of the guy correcting his affadavit because he had no personal knowledge that Kerry shot the VC teen IN THE BACK.
And the doctor also has never been on a Swift boat with Kerry.
Weird.
Since Kerry is unwilling to admit this is really his buttox he's talking about I think it should be pressed when this injury to his leg - previously undocumented - actually ocurred. that would be funny to see them admit was really the circumstance affecting his buttox
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