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In a dramatic filmed moment, a struggling Navy veteran seeking to pay his medical bills said he was considering committing suicide while speaking in front of a Bernie Sanders town hall in Carson City, in Nevada. Veteran John said Friday that his Tricare had been removed, leaving him with more than $ 130,000 in medical expenses.
"How are you going to pay for this?" Sanders asked the veteran.
"I can not, I can not, I'm going to kill myself!" John answered.
The presidential hope of 2020 stopped John and told him: "You are not going to kill yourself" and told him that they would talk about his situation after the town hall.
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In a video clip captured by Cara Korte of CBS News that went viral, John told Sanders that he had spent 20 years in the Navy, including during visits to Kuwait and Somalia.
"I saved lives, I was a navy man," he said. "We take care of ours except now.My Tricare is no longer acceptable, they won it."
The veteran said he was suffering from Huntington's disease, a genetic disease that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. According to the National Institutes of Health, there is no cure for the disease.
"I have Huntington's disease, I'm at stage IV," he said. "I can hardly take care of myself and I do not have the energy to fight these people."
After hearing the heartbreaking story of the vet, Sanders said, "I would like to be able to say that what John just described is unique and that he's the only one in America to undergo that, but this It's not the case, John will discuss it after the meeting, and we'll see what we can do about it. "
About 20 veterans take their lives every day in America, or 6000 a year. A phone line launched in 2007 answered more than 3.5 million calls, sending emergency assistance to nearly 100,000 people.
For immediate help in a crisis, call the toll-free number on the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.
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