Family of injured soldier says he was denied proper care

COLORADO SPRINGS - The family of a Fort Carson soldier who suffered brain damage during an attack in Iraq says that he was denied proper medical care when his commanders overruled a doctor's order to send him to Germany for treatment.

Fort Carson is investigating why commanders kept Sgt. Aaron Renstrom in Iraq despite an Army doctor's report that said he was "unable to perform his duties in a combat zone safely." Jessica Renstrom is outraged commanders forced her husband to stay in a war zone against a doctor's advice and allowed his condition to go untreated for months.

"I am extremely angry," she said in the home where the couple and their two children live near Fort Carson. "They have an obligation to make sure soldiers are taken care of and they didn't." After he returned to Colorado Springs on leave late last month, Renstrom, 26, of Hector, Minn., finally got the tests he needed. He learned last week he suffered brain damage when he was thrown from a Humvee on July 12 when it was attacked with a homemade bomb.

A Fort Carson doctor recommended Renstrom, who is suffering memory loss, headaches and other problems, stay at the Colorado post for care. Renstrom fears he might still get pulled back to the war.

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