Sweet Jesus - that's the worst burn injury I've ever seen. This is one courageous man. If ever someone needed a face transplant, he's it. I hope all goes well and that one day this accident will be just a distant memory. May God be with this man and his family.

Beyond words.

Kevin C, I echo your sentiments exactly. I am the father of a young daughter too, and I certainly hope he can have a little bit more enjoyment of life in general and cherish more fully one of the most precious gifts of life - the love of one's own child. If only someone could do something to restore his sight, too. He's a courageous man; if only the world were filled with more people who had an attitude and outlook on life like this guy does!

if as the article said the DoD is paying the cost, how is this other than that based on him being eligible? ok he was approved as a candidate... not under the "nes federal law" either. it was because he is healthy enough to survive the surgery with minimal complications. Thus, gratz to all of here... even tho the DoD is flipping the bill.... we know who pays it in the end right? he should be thanking his fellow WORKING AMERICANS for our help, if the case. feel bad for him and all that, but he had insurance, and recieved benifits....

dont get me wrong, i feel for the guy and all. still, dont want to be "smoothed over", by a few acts of actual chairity, when the rest of the idiots are freeloading bums.

This is really sad on what this man has and is going through. As a burn survivor myself, I understand his plight and know what it's like to have so much reconstructive surgery. I am going to be put on a list for arm transplants.

I remember when Iwas a kid in the hospital another kid was brought in and was severely burned from head to toe. He lost his eyes, teeth, and didn't make it. This was done all because a family moved into an apartment and some gang members tossed a moltoff-cocktail through the kitchen window where the daughter and son were making peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. The daughter was lucky and wasn't burned too badly, but her 7 yo brother was terrible burned, kind of like me. It's not easy going through life as a burn survivor. The burns, the pain, then the recovery part of it is hard to beat, but there are those of us that did make it thanks to good doctors, nurses and medical technology and medicines.

For those that are on welfare, they should be made to do community service and keep their streets and neighborhoods clean. This can and will save a lot of tax dollars if we made some of these capable, but lazy people to get off their azz and actually contribute and give back something to the communities. Just because you are on welfare, it doesn't mean you should be allowed to get a check, free rent and then sit on your azz all day doing nothing.

American certainly can prosper and grow if we gave the people on welfare the incentive to work, move around, burn those calories and keep their neighborhood looking great.

Prisoners as well need to pay for their stay in jail as well. No weightlifting, go out and make them grow and farm crops for their food and teach them to be responsible and more productive citizens in America.

thessdd

While I understand there can be a genuine need for "public assistance," I believe that it should (in most cases) be a temporary solution. Case in point is my sister who found herself in an abusive marriage and needed a way out for her and her infant child. She did her own paperwork to file for divorce because she didn't have the money to pay an attorney. She went on AFDC and learned how to use (not abuse) the system. She learned to file for grants that put her through college and got a degree. Once she secured a job, she dropped AFDC like a hot potato, filed for another grant to continue her education and eventually got a second degree, all while working full time and raising a child. Oh...did I mention that she has a learning disability? If she can do it, anyone can do it.

Don't lump everyone in the same category. Don't expect people without arms to go out and get a job. There aren't many jobs available for them and most people will not hire a person that has to write or type with their feet. As for learning disabilities, there are many different forms of learning disabilities, some that are mild and some that are so severe that a person is incapable of holding down a job.

There are many different kids of disabilities, and fortunately for your sister, hers is not so bad so she's able to do for herself., but there are many others that will always be dependant and needing financial assistance. Just like the man in the article that lost his eye-sight as well as his face. Trust me, but when you are that severely disfigured, no one will hire you. That's just the way our society works. People are judged based on appearances and no disability rather than those with a disability that can work and can't get a job.

I say as long as we have billions to send to countries like Pakistan, Iraq, afghanistan, Haiti and all the others, people like this American should have whatever he needs to get well again.

I agree 100% I hope this young man gets the help he needs.

I agree with you 100%. We help out all these foreign countries and the hell with our own. Let them live in the streets..(not). We as Americans want to help everyone else but our own and it's just not right!!! This man deserves a new face and I feel the State should help him obtain that goal. He was working when the accident happened right? What about the company he worked for? Are they not responsible for his medical bills? Oh that's right, I forgot workmans comp denies everyone even when they know it was a job related accident. I am on that string right now fighting for my medical bills!!!

Just when you think you've had it bad, something like this comes along to remind you how lucky you really are. My heart goes out to this man. I don't know how I'd survive something like that happening to me. I truely hope he gets his face transplant.

Hooray, someone said it! Let's take care of our own first and when there is no more poverty, poor souls living on the streets and people without insurance.... then we can help some others. We are not responsible for saving the world and it should NEVER be them before us!!!!!

I wish him all the best and was glad to hear that he will get the treatment he needs because of health care reform was passed.

Will that ever ever happen though? We are the first ones on the site of disasters in other countries handing them money and helping them to rebuild. You think those other countries give a rats a-- about us? Hell no they don't. We need to stop nuturing people in other countries and start fixing America's problems.

uneeklady-I agree and the thing is the relief aid has been a dismal failure in terms of changing the major problems of these third world countries but I have to say it has put some money in the pockets of the profit driven war machine. The American people have been scammed by Washington for years that helping other poor nations is the right thing to do. It just prolongs these countries suffering and causes more suffering. Let help our own citizens first.

I'm for all the good stuff......but we can't have everything.......its not possible........someone is having to say no at one point or another.

No we can't have everything, but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have adults and children living homeless through no fault of their own. The government is greedy, they make lots and lots of money why don't they donate to our homeless? They are to busy lining their pockets and getting pay raise after pay raise!! It has to stop some where. WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN!!!!

S129-Then lets say no to foreign aid. Lets focus our minds on stopping the corruption in Washington and stop beating each other up. Lets take care of our country and stop the global agenda takeover of our country. If we don't in 20 years our standard of living will no longer be comfortable it will be decidedly miserable.

The aid we give other countries is one of the things that makes America such a great country. I agree that we do need to reprioritize how we spend our money and how we help our fellow Americans. We can't do that at the cost of taking money from the suffering in other countries though. Every dollar we spend in helping other countries is like thousands of dollars of those people trying to do the same thing helping themselves (they just don't have the resources and technology that we do). Our humanitarian aid is one of our biggest diplomatic tools to keep the U.S.A. on top in world affairs. If we lost that, we'd be marginalized more than we already are becoming in the world.

Regarding this man's story, I am happy that he got the help he needed. I wonder how many other people like him are waiting on insurance companies or other institutions to get their aid. I am sad that his marriage is ending. People in this country don't take marriage seriously anymore.

I understand your feelings but the sad truth is the foreign aid sent by our government has a dismal record of actually changing the major problems in these poor countries. They go beyond their carrying capacity and then nature attempts to reset the balance. Starvation war disease. I do not think Washington is in there to help those people we have a profit driven war machine in this country that is highly favored by Washington and at the taxpayers expense. The American People are being lied to being taken advantage of by Washington. When a house becomes corrupted you have to clean it out otherwise all these billions sent abroad will not correct the problem only increase the sad state of affairs this country finds itself in. That is the what I see happening with foreign aid. Take care

You are right about cleaning it out, but sadly we only replace government officials with more corrupt people. It's a vicious cycle that will never end unfortunately. It is slowly bringing this world to it's demise. Why do we have so many homeless and hungry people? Men and women that had good jobs and lost them due to our economy!! Our government can't take care of us and now they try to be humanatarian and try to help other countries. That's wrong wrong wrong. So that means to bad for our people who are suffering and hungry. We only know what they want us to know which is not much. Only wish there was something that could be done for the American citizens.

What's going to happen to all the millions HIV+ and receiving government funding for their drugs to keep them alive? Once they lose funding for their meds, in America, we will have on mass genocide by the first black president (Jim Jones).

Down with Obama!

God bless him... I feel so bad for him. My hat is off...

a shame that he has to worry about medicaid, medicare issues.

What a brave person and his philosophy should be an example for the rest of us who birch about trivial things...

Very hurtful to read this and to see the pain he has been through.

Yes, comparing a drastic accident and surgeries needed to obamacare is really intelligent.

Hi James. From the article:

"The federal health care law helped him overcome one hurdle by allowing the 25-year-old Fort Worth man to be covered by his father's insurance."

Extension of parents' insurance benefits to their children, up to the age of 26, was one of the most widely cited provisions of 'Obamacare'. This is why John's comment makes sense while yours is unintelligible.

..

I am glad for this man that he was able to get coverage through his father's insurance. I only wish him the best.

But it doesn't change the fact that insurance rates have drastically INCREASED for many people since some provisions of Obamacare went into effect. And, among other problems, many insurance companies have stopped writing policies for children altogether because of the requirement that they accept ALL children, no matter how ill they are. There is no doubt that there are many problems with the way healthcare is paid for and distributed in this country. But all Obamacare did was to add even MORE tremendously burdensome mandates while doing almost NOTHING to control costs.

It's, by far, the worst piece of legislation that was ever foisted on the American public.

And all anybody needs to know that this is true, is the fact that Pelosi had the balls to tell the American Public that we could find out what was in the bill after it was passed. I loathe her with every fiber of my being.

That the law helped this guy does not make it right. Private businesses should not be told by government who they have to cover for a certain price.

All depends how big the company his father works for is. A huge company it may not cause a impact but smaller companies things like this can cause their rates to increase to the point they can't afford to carry insurance for anyone at the company. The rates are based on the history of claims and when you do not have a large number of people to average out the costs. This is the 80% payout garbage they have been complaining about. Just one person could represent 80% payout of all the premiums paid for all the other worker.

Really medicaid should just pay for it.... ie us the taxpayers and not some unsuspecting company that is going to have its insurance plan hammered.

Obama care would be fine with me but It's unconstitutional to require everyone to purchase a service. WIsh they'd had a pic of this dude before his accident. then later show his new face so we can see how much the skull influences your appearance or if the flesh and muscle has a greater influence. Really a good way to test those recreations from bone or fossil, if you can really reliably recreate a face from a skull the way they do for forensics and such then this guy should look alot like he originally did before his accident after he gets a new face. Either way good luck to him. For those who want to call him corageous, WTF! Really? I mean I'm not putting the guy down but calling someone who had any kind of an accident and has to deal with disfiguring results corageous is kinda stupid. It doesn't take courage to want to live and deal with your injuries it takes patience and will. I'd say he's Quite the willfull fellow though. People are so ignorant!

Obamacare is going to help the guy until he's 26, but how in the heck is he going to pay for his pricey anti-rejection drugs after that?

The article states that he will be able to pay for the meds with disability and medicare/medicaid that he is going to be eligable to receive.

It also appears that the Dept of Defense is "underwriting" the operation so the insurance company will not be footing the bill either. The DOD wants to study this case for personnel wounded on duty.

All in all, we will be paying for it, and I am extremely happy to do my part for those that are less fortunate. I am really sorry that so many of our people have become nothing but self centered and selfish people who only care about themselves. It truely is a shame that we have to legislate moral reasoning.

db - all our elected officials legislate is finding new ways to steal, waste and generally mismanage our tax dollars. And I am sick to death of mealy-mouthed people like you accusing people of being self-centered and selfish because they dare to complain about being continuously lied to and robbed by our government.

And if you think Democrats are the arbiters of moral reasoning, there is seriously something wrong with you.

And when is it enough for you people? At what point do you think that we are all paying our fair share?

And you are free to donate ALL of your money to help those less fortunate than you. But it is NOT the government's job to take from one group and give to another. That is absolutely NOT the kind of values that this country was founded on. It is what it has been PERVERTED into.

Actually, the article states he is not eligible for Medicaid because he makes too much money from disability, and that's not going to change because his disability payout will remain constant.

However, Medicare will be huge in helping him. I have Medicare because of a pulmonary disability and I have a Medicare Part D payment where certain drugs only cost me a few dollars. Depending on the complexity and specialty of the drugs, he could get some for very cheap, but there may be some specialty drugs that his Medicare won't cover.

Laced713 - "I mean I'm not putting the guy down but calling someone who had any kind of an accident and has to deal with disfiguring results corageous is kinda stupid. It doesn't take courage to want to live and deal with your injuries it takes patience and will. I'd say he's Quite the willfull fellow though. People are so ignorant!"

I think what makes him courageous is his outlook on life. Apparently he misses and yearns for the simple things. Picture this. Say you became disfigured from an accident. How would it feel to be treated differently than the way you are everyday? He's had to adjust to being blind, having no feeling in his face, having no teeth, and a non-existent nose. Even though he can't see, picture yourself in public. Would you feel like a fish out of water?

I know I would, that's why I think this man is courageous. His faith also speaks in volumes too, because he hasn't given up on what he believes in. He deserves this transplant because he's a living, breathing, animated message to people: don't let obstacles slow you down.

Just saying what's on my mind.

JC people - get off healthcare reform and just wish this man well.

Well, obviously he did get MAJOR care ... in any other country he'd probably be dead (allowed to let nature/God run it's course) after giving him whatever life-saving tratments that were required. Furhermore, he's a contactor, why is his workmens comp insurance not footing this bill? He had no insurance? Why did he, a father of a little girl, not have insurance?

Where will this end? If we (those of us who work and pay taxes) have to take care of every unfortunate person in the US who didn't/wouldn't/couldn't pay his/her own way, this could get vey costly.

I feel for this man. I truely do but using this man's situation to push Obamacare is another example of the left praying on people's emotions to push their agendas.

I feel for this man. I truely do but using this man's situation to push Obamacare is another example of the left praying on people's emotions to push their agendas

THIS man is a PERFECT example of WHY and HOW healthcare reform is needed!! People are suffering..you even said you feel for this man. As dbkilgore said above, it's shameful that 'we have to legislate moral reasoning'....

I always feel both sad and amused when I read Republican comments about Obama healthcare. Republicans like to tote themselves as God-fearing Christians, but the truth is, you're only Christians when you get to be sexist homophobes who hold onto their money who apparently missed the 2000 year old memo that charity is one of the biggest Christian values.

My plan has had a huge deductible and pretty much sucked while W was President. My premiums have not had a huge rise in the last two years. The insurance compainies have been putting it to me for years. Nothing to do with the current President. More to do with greedy insurance companies wanting to offer less and less coverage while increasing premiums and raking in record profits. You may think government is bad but insurance companies are worse.

Orbust,

You are one of the lucky ones who always had the option to buy a plan through your employer. Congrats to you. Long before the current changes, that was becoming a less frequent option for an ever growing segment of the population -- and private policies were out of financial reach for many. As for your plan sucking now and still having to pay for it -- you can thank your insurance company for that. They are the blood sucking leeches who have preemptively altered their practices to get the most they can out of people for the least amount of servicse, primarily to convince you that the current changes are bad so that you will throw a fit and try to get the changes reversed -- which is in the company's best interests, not yours. The changes have not been in effect long enough to necessitate any actual changes in policies. And you are falling for it hook-line-and-sinker. And you are not the only one. I do not believe the current changes are a panacea to all the ills of the health care industry -- but change has to start somewhere. The system was not working for huge segments of the population the way things were -- for many hard working Americans, not just the bums you imagine are sponging off the system in large numbers. I, like many young people, had to go almost two years without insurance after graduating. I was working full time and working long, hard hours trying to establish a career, but at institutions that did not offer employee benefits. I was paid too much for assistance but far from enough to purchase a private plan ($9 an hour with no overtime pay does not cut it). Luckily, I was able to advance my career relatively quickly and now have a position with benefits, but it was not so long ago that I have forgotten what it was like to be in that position.

TTexan - I agree completely.

Insurance Companies Greedy what never heard of this 8p

I agree with fiscal he hit that nail pretty good..................

When Americans watched that nut job Pelosi tell us we have to pass it to know what is in it 8( that was the end of it NO MORE.

what if you marries an gambler who hits you and your kids and uses his hook ups in the court to strip you and your kids down to nothing like so many selfish, compulsive immature men who get young girls pregnant and marry them? where is that happy life? that the compulsive gambler is in charge of?...just 'be happy' ??? my kids dad beat us,...spent all our money on scratcher tickets and its just a matter of being happy and not taking welfare when i lost my house to these backwards, unregulated regan laws that gave the banks endless power to steal from us with no repercussions? a housewife with no child support, no job skills and i should just be happy to be married and have these kids? too bad there isnt 200 million insurance eligible jobs or world peace would be all yours...

Feeling bitter much Liz ? You would do well to read the story again . Insurance is certainly a major crisis in this country but the point here is NOT to let your past haunt you. Overcome it with elan and style. Attitude is everything.

Liz - so because YOU (and apaprently your mother before you) made a bunch of terrible choices, the rest of us should be responsible for your welfare? You are a poster child for everything that is going wrong in our society.

I am responsible for taking care of MY family - NOT YOURS.

Liz was making a point to Maggie that you can't always be happy and stay married to your spouse - yes Liz should have made a better choice in who to marry and have kids with, but would you rather her stay with an abusive gambler and be miserable, or get out of that situation and try to make her life and her kids' lives better?

I understand she was responding to Maggie regarding the issue of staying married. But she went on to complain about having no skills, which obviously translates into not being able to support herself if she leaves her abusive husband. Who's fault is it that she is apparently almost unemployable? She is blaming everyone and everything EXCEPT HER POOR CHOICES for her current predicament - and that is EXACTLY the problem with far too many people in our society. The goverment has been telling them that it's OK to blame everybody else - and people like Liz are clearly buying into it.

You all miss the point, including Liz. She had no "choice" as to her parents, nor did they before her. An advanced society would recognize that problem and try to correct it for the good of all. We need public education to begin at 2 or 3 and we need to educate teens in how to navigate our predatory culture. Teach them about credit cards and mortgages and what to be careful of. Teach them the value of education better. Look at the Jews and Japanese. They don't have nearly the problems that Americans have.

NO! We do NOT need "public education" to start at age 2 or 3. We have that in some parts of NJ - and what it really is taxpayer-funded babysitting services - and many of the "mothers" who take advantage of this program LOVE it - because they get someone else to watch their kids for free while they sit on their a$$es in their section 8 housing and watch talk shows all day.

Public education will never be able to take the place of competent parenting, no matter how much liberals like to claim it can. We spend over $25,000 PER PUPIL in our poorest districts in NJ, THOUSANDS more per kid than the richest districts - with almost NOTHING to show for it. Nothing but billions of wasted taxpayer dollars.

As for educating teens , that's what PARENTS are for. That's what I am doing for MY son. And here's a little newsflash for you "cleareye". There are LOTS of AMERICAN Jews and Americans of Asian descent!!! But you're right about one thing - they generally don't have the family problems that permeate much of our society - because they tend to take care of their families, value education and work hard for what they have and don't depend on the government for handouts.

I don't know WHAT the answer is to idiots having children - but I know that throwing taxpayer money at the problem - whcih is ALWAYS the liberal answer - does NOT work.

fiscalconservative

Liz - so because YOU (and apaprently your mother before you) made a bunch of terrible choices, the rest of us should be responsible for your welfare? You are a poster child for everything that is going wrong in our society.

I am responsible for taking care of MY family - NOT YOURS.

Wow, thats a really insensitive statement. but not surprising seeing that your screen name is fiscal conservative. You sound like a real jerk, are you taking care of your family by showing them how to be a complete loser?

"Medicaid paid for his initial care at Parkland, but he was dropped from the federal health care program for the poor when his disability payments put him over its income limits."

Looks like the federal government has it all figured out......they no longer want to pay so they just pass the bill on to private complanies, which raises the prices for the rest of us. Thanks, Mr. President, it is not like I was trying to feed and clothe my children with that money.

shut_up - with that user name, you have some big balls calling other people names.

But the truth is, I misread Liz's post. I thought she made a reference to being beaten by HER father, when she was actually referring to her KIDS' father. My bad.

But, that said, did YOU actually read liz's post? Because whoever raised this woman obviously didn't do such a hot job of making sure she was prepared to take care of herself. And I have long witnessed that this tends to be a viscious cycle - child is born, raised by knuckleheads; "grows up"; gets pregnant, usually multiple times with either a complete loser like Liz described, or multiple fathers; is clueless about how to make the right choices and give the right guidance to their kids because THEY never got any, and so the cycle continues.

It is very easy to call people names and act like a 5 year old like you did in your post. And you don't need to worry about how I'm raising my family. You just need to worry about how you are raising yours.

While I understand there can be a genuine need for "public assistance," I believe that it should (in most cases) be a temporary solution. Case in point is my sister who found herself in an abusive marriage and needed a way out for her and her infant child. She did her own paperwork to file for divorce because she didn't have the money to pay an attorney. She went on AFDC and learned how to use (not abuse) the system. She learned to file for grants that put her through college and got a degree. Once she secured a job, she dropped AFDC like a hot potato, filed for another grant to continue her education and eventually got a second degree, all while working full time and raising a child. Oh...did I mention that she has a learning disability? If she can do it, anyone can do it.

This is ridiculous:

1) Liz: I am sorry but you cannot use your terrible life as a crutch. You made the decisions to led to to where you are today. Go back to school, do something and support your kids. You cannot rely on the goverment or some man to take care of you. Nothing comes easy in this life and you have to work to make yourself successful.

2) fiscalconservative: I agree 1000% percent with everything you've said.

3) Shut_up: This is what is wrong with our society. No one takes responsibility for their actions.. who cares if what he said is inconsiderate. Liz should not have allowed herself to get into that situation. And judging by her writing skills I can pretty much guarantee you that Liz is a high school drop out, who is living off the working communities taxpayers dollars and expecting everyone to pay for her tragic life and mistakes.

4) I think everyone has forgotton the main issue in this article, that an accident has completely altered some persons life. In situations like this I think that this person should be helped no matter what kind of health care plan they have. This is not an eyeryday occurance.

I am really sickened to see people putting down someone who was or is in an abusive relationship! That has nothing to do with this man who is going through so much and obviously needs help with health care. It is not always that person or their parents "fault" that someone ended up in an abusive relationship. I know I didn't wake up one day and decide, "hey, I think I want to be with someone who abuses me." It certainly wasn't my parent's fault. He started as a wonderful man, as they all do, and went south. It isn't always safe to leave right away, especially when children are involved. The abuser could follow them, hurt them, or worse kill them. My abuser wouldn't let me leave, work, have a phone, have a car, or have people over to the house. I am now away from him, and a single working mother of two with no help from him. I still need goverment funded help for insurance, food, etc... I work for a company that provides medication to people who can't afford it. The pharmaceutical companies still have income requirments, so I see first hand how hard it is for a lot of people to get the medications that they need to live. It sickens me that people have no clue outside of their cushy life what it is really like.

Clear eye,

You are so wrong. What we need in this society is parents who actually care about and parent their own childern. As soon as people started relying on the governement to take care of and "teach" their childern is the time society went completely down hill. With all of the "rules" schools have regarding religion and such how do you propose they are going to teach our childern morals?? Oh ya... that is what PARENTS are for!

You have got to be kidding me-2530863 - You really have some nerve talking about the writing ability of others. It may come as a surprise but you have poor skills in that department too. This also applies to you, Mr. Fiscal Conservative.

While I understand there can be a genuine need for "public assistance," I believe that it should (in most cases) be a temporary solution. Case in point is my sister who found herself in an abusive marriage and needed a way out for her and her infant child. She did her own paperwork to file for divorce because she didn't have the money to pay an attorney. She went on AFDC and learned how to use (not abuse) the system. She learned to file for grants that put her through college and got a degree. Once she secured a job, she dropped AFDC like a hot potato

thessdd...

Actually, just about every state has electronic systems that review all the people receiving medicaid/public assistance and food stamps, etc., and purge old cases out, re-new qualifying cases, and add new cases ON A MONTHLY BASIS. These systems aren't perfect probably becuase they are overseen by humans working for the state medicaid and food assistance programs who aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed, but they help save states millions if not billions in fraud and correct previous oversight problems w/ individual cases. So, people come on and fall off of medicaid and food stamps every month, and if records aren't kept up to date, then people get thrown out of the system and have to contact their caseworker to figure out what happened. I believe there are some new provisions and technology enhancements proposed in the new healthcare legislation that will help streamline the process electronically, and bring the antiquated programs up to the year 2010 or better so that further waste is eliminated and human error corrected for.

Just ANOTHER example of why healthcare reform IS needed and how it will save everyone's tax dollars from being wasted.

The REASON for $$ is to pay for the damn operation and other incidentals...Plus, lawyers gotta eat.

Did any of you people who are suggesting that a law suit was filed by this man, ever think about the fact that he could have been self-employed. The article did say that he was working with family; not that he worked with a particular employer. Give the man a break!!!

anonamous is an ass! Your simplified version of life only demonstrates how poor our school systems must be. When you having nothing useful to say you will look smarter if you remain silent.

Cleareye,

You may want to take your own advice... Anonamous has a wonderful comment about a young man overcoming his struggles, and you put a comment like that? I would have to say you were the one not looking smart by making a ridiculous comment like that.

Sorry... My fault for not reading correctly. My sincere appologies Cleareye. I didn't realize that Anonamous' comment was deleted. I thought you were being nasty about the original post from daveyoung-521716. That was rude of me to comment like that without being sure of what I was reading first. Again, I am sorry.

@Anonamous... You obviously never learned reading comprehension, so I'll clue you in. The article is about Dallas Wiens and yes, HE lost his eyes in the accident. Liz is someone else who posted on this message board. And you? You are an ignoramus who should keep ITs' moronic comments to ITself.

ha ha

I would be much more embarrassed to go out in public with the absolute lack of intelligence illustrated by, "anonamous," than with this gentleman's disfigurement.

The man has no eyes. I don't think he expects to look "normal". I think he wants to breath through a nose, eat with a mouth, and feel kisses on his cheek

Tyler, seeing all the responses from that poster, it looks like they could use a suspension or being shut down altogether...

keep it cool..."tyler ........ kiss kiss kiss".......how rediculous

sl29- if you want to make fun of people, you should learn how to spell first. :)

kiss kiss kiss....bottom feeder :(

good grief

karma is a eastern religion myth. let me western modernize your thoughts. you reap what you sow. amen.

@Rev.C: The concept is the same, but the language is different. In English you call it 'you reap what you sow'. In Sanskrit you call it 'karma'. That being the case, how can you conclude that 'karma' is an Eastern religious "myth"? Om shanti.

First of all, I totally admire Dallas Wiens' grit and his love for life. Despite facing such a disastrous event, he is hopeful and optimistic about leading a perfectly normal life, which I strongly believe he will. People like him inspire others to believe in the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Wish you all success and happiness in life, Mr.Wiens. You rock!

Yeah, besides the physical deformity, I'm sure there is a lot of stress in that relationship due to medical care and mounting bills. Not an easy task. Then you also have that there is no more better or worse, sicker or poorer anymore. Going gets tough, tough gets an attorney and a divorce, STAT.

Does that mean you'll decline Social Security and Medicare when the time comes?

Guess I would reply by saying that I have already been paying into these with no choice. I would consider paying into social security and medicare like paying insurance premiums. If he was declined because of a technicality(too much disability income) then change that part of it, not the whole thing.

i can't believe that all some ppl are worried about is, "why should I have to pay with my tax dollars"! what is with u ppl. don't u have a charitable bone in your brains? what if it happened to u? i'm sure u wouldn't mind the tax dollars being spent. taxes go for roads and schools and the elderly, what makes the difference if it helps someone get their life back? i would rather "MY" tax dollars go to a good cause then straight to the government. i think they have enough of "MY" money already! u sound just like my boss,.

Stevie, since I consider myself a good person, I won't wish ill on you. But if someone you become too sick to support yourself and pay for your own health, I hope you remember these words and hope that the government doesn't let you die like a dog on the curb.

Im glad that he is able to get the transplant n this is the only semi good thing I have read that has come from Obamacare, but I do agree that we the taxpayers should not foot the bill... That being said, I believe he is a perfect example of people that really do need help. Hes not some deadbeat living off the system.

Why not have the tax payers pay for it? Of I have to pay for a bunch of women sitting on thier fat asses and having babies they can't care for, I would like to pay for this too with my tax money. That's why he is on Social Security- HE IS DISABLED.

Hope you never have an accident.. but if you do, YOU better hope there are more people like me and less like you. :)

For all of you comparing taxpayer funded healthcare to charity:

Do you look at the overhead expense ratios for charities before you donate to them? I do, because I want to make sure my dollars are really going to help people. Now, the government isn't a charity, but what do you think the overhead on your average government program is?

It is disingenuous to suggest that paying taxes is a charitable act, or that the government should/does/will legislate charity or the other absurdities suggested here.

That said, this man needs compassion and assistance, and I have no problem with the government providing the means for him to have this procedure.

Thank you for your voice of reason.

You are right on, lawful 1. I can't understand why everything on these forums gets reduced to some debased barnyard broo-ha-ha about politics. Blame Obama, blame Bush, blame Kennedy, blame FDR, whatever you want, but you are absolutely right, we're overlooking the real spirit and message of this article. The true message here is that we have a very heroic person who simply wants to cherish the greatest gifts of life (i.e., feel the kiss of his own child) and have some basic enjoyment and function back. His resolve and optimism truly are commendable... all I can really do is just reiterate what you said. Now, all of us who are privileged enough to have an intact face and sight and health and sense of touch and facial sensation - we should be truly thankful for what we have, and cherish every moment with our children and our families!

Buzzlightyear2-1515380. I agree. I read this article and felt horrible for this poor man and his family. Then I read all the comments and I feel worse for many of the people posting comments. Their hearts and minds are burnt so much worse than this man's face.