Severe Brain Injury Leads to Financial Difficulties

Staff Sgt. Richard Rodriguez spent his working life in service to his country.

So it's only appropriate that patriotic Coalition supporters gave him critical help in return - help that began after his disabling brain injury and continued even after his death.

>Sgt. Rodriguez was on active duty during the first Gulf War and remained in the Reserves after his separation from active duty. Then he worked as a civilian contractor for the Department of Defense until his recall for the second invasion of Iraq.

It was during this second call-up that Sgt. Rodriguez suffered a life-altering brain injury. On a narrow road in Iraq, August 2004 insurgents launched a mortar attack on the Heavy Equipment Transport he was driving and the vehicle smashed into two other trucks. Sgt. Rodriguez was left with a brain injury that reduced his mental function to that of a third- or fourth-grader, and other injuries that limited his ability to walk.

Recalls his son, Daniel, "He was upset at the fact that he couldn't read a book and remember what he read." Doctors recommended Sgt. Rodriguez remain in the hospital, since he required constant care for his injuries and because his head trauma made it difficult to perform basic tasks. But later Sgt. Rodriguez convinced his doctors to allow him to move in with his brother in San Antonio. 

Unfortunately the wounded hero was having financial difficulties, and that's when the Coalition jumped in to help. Staffers helped him sort out a problem with his VA benefits, and that allowed him to move into his own place a few blocks away from his brother. Although able to live on his own, Sgt. Rodriguez was unable to drive, cook for himself or do many of the tasks around the house that he loved to do. Essentially, he was a shut in.

The Coalition responded again - this time by picking him up at his house and driving him where he needed to go."They [the Coalition] gave him an opportunity to feel like a person," said Daniel.  "He told me that it wasn't just that they took him to a lot of places he would never have been able to go on his own - it was that he was surrounded by people like him, military people who understood who he was and what he had gone through.

"I remember one weekend in particular. I called him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and got no answer. I was concerned, but since his medications were very powerful and many times caused him to sleep for long periods, I chalked it up to that. "Finally, on Tuesday I got a call back - and my Dad was so excited. The Coalition had taken him to a NASCAR race in Dallas. He was like a kid at Christmas describing how the Coalition had picked him up in their special van."
On August 4, 2007, Staff Sgt. Richard Rodriguez passed away in his native state of Texas. 

But that was only the beginning of trouble for his family, because they lacked money for a funeral.

"My Dad had always stressed he wanted to be prepared for the future and that he didn't want to be a financial burden on us," said Daniel. "But when we assessed his estate after he passed, there was nothing there, which was very uncharacteristic for him. I think the traumatic brain injuries he suffered had a lot to do with that."
To pay for the funeral, Sgt. Rodriguez's brother took out a personal loan - "a loan he really couldn't pay back," according to Daniel.

And Daniel himself had no way to move his father's personal belongings to his house in Colorado.

"It was with a heavy heart that I wrote to [the Coalition] to ask for more help," Daniel said. Coalition donors paid all of Sgt. Rodriguez's funeral expenses - which allowed his brother to repay the personal loan in full - and Coalition staffers arranged and paid for a rental truck to move his belongings."The Coalition came through for us at a real trying time," Daniel says. "They went above and beyond any expectations that we had.

"I remember my Dad telling me everything in this world happens for a reason, and it might not always be fair or always right but its not in our time or in our plan; it's in the Lord's plan."