{"id":72419,"date":"2024-05-23T17:16:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T17:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/05\/23\/senator-wants-answers-on-dods-medical-treatment-for-terror-victims\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:53:06","slug":"senator-wants-answers-on-dods-medical-treatment-for-terror-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/pay-benefits\/military-benefits\/health-care-benefits\/2024\/05\/23\/senator-wants-answers-on-dods-medical-treatment-for-terror-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator wants answers on DOD\u2019s medical treatment for terror victims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A senator is pressing defense health officials for information about how they\u2019re using a 2017 law that allows military medical facilities to treat civilians and veterans who are victims of terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military treatment facilities are designed to offer medical care to troops, retirees and their families. While MTFs can also take civilians who are unaffiliated with the armed forces, those patients must first navigate an approval process to be seen by military doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2017 law aimed to change that by allowing the defense secretary to waive those rules for civilians and vets who are severely wounded or injured in a terror attack, offering them an easier path to further medical treatment after the initial emergency response. The law applies to MTFs worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI urge the Department to fully utilize this authority and ensure that victims of terror are aware of their options to receive care at MTFs,\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote Thursday in a letter to Lester Martinez-Lopez, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMTFs can provide life-changing treatment for victims of acts of terror,\u201d Warren wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2019s personnel panel, introduced the legislation in 2017 \u2014 titled the \u201cJessica Kensky and Patrick Downes Act\u201d for a young married couple who each lost legs in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The couple credited the specialized team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for helping them achieve a fuller recovery than they may otherwise have had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn return, Jessica and Patrick wanted to ensure other victims of terror have access to appropriate care at military medical facilities,\u201d Warren wrote in her letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The care Kensky and Downes received at Boston trauma centers was important to their survival and initial recovery, they told Warren. But when they sought extra medical expertise at Walter Reed, the outsiders instead ran up against the military bureaucracy that needed to approve their specialized care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In emergencies, anyone can receive care in an MTF to prevent undue suffering or loss of life or limb. Treating civilian emergency patients helps military medical personnel keep their clinical skills current, and a number of MTFs have built relationships with local communities to bolster an area\u2019s civilian trauma care capabilities. And over the years, DOD has gained extra authorities to expand the scope of its medical care, like the flexibility to treat terror victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 50 terror attacks, including mass shootings, took place in the United States each year since the Kensky-Downes law was enacted in 2017 through 2020, the latest year tracked by the Global Terrorism Database<\/a> at the University of Maryland. Many did not lead to injuries or fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren seeks answers from DOD by June 6, including the number of civilians treated at MTFs over the past 10 years for trauma-related and non-trauma incidents; which cases involved mass shootings and acts of terror; where those civilians were treated; and what types of injuries people incurred and the incidents that caused them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren has also requested:<\/p>\n\n\n\n