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On April 6, 2018, Sgt. Ryan Carter went to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for what is considered a routine back surgery for chronic neck pain. He left the hospital paralyzed, never to walk again.

He and his wife believe he is the victim of military malpractice, but is currently unable to litigate his case and receive due process all because he served in the military.

However, at the time of his surgery, he was not on active duty, which should have qualified him to file a claim against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Yet months after this devastating procedure, the military backdated his orders, making him ineligible to file.

This is the story of his fight to receive compensation for this life-altering injury, which has profoundly impacted him and his family. He now can only use his left arm, paralyzed from the chest down. Due to this surgery, he was forced to relocate from his home in Maryland to be closed to family and near a veterans hospital in Flordia that specializes in spinal cord injuries.

His story is not an anomaly. There are hundreds of cases of what many say are botched surgeries and gross negligence by doctors who are not held accountable within military hospitals for mistakes and violations of the standards of care. However, due to a 1950 Supreme Court ruling known as the Feres Doctrine, which lumps injuries and even sexual assaults on active duty as “incident to service,” victims never receive their day in court.

Join us as I talk to Ryan, his wife Kathleen, and his lawyer, Chris Casciano, about how this happened to him and the story behind a cause much more significant than his case alone.

This case is about how one ruling 74 years ago has now been grossly exaggerated and broadly applied in ways that advocates say were never intended.

More on his case and implications of Feres -https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-06-23/military-lawsuit-supreme-court-feres-doctrine-14273529.html

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