Open this photo in gallery Mazan Khosho with his wife Rita Potestio. Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail

Mazen Khosho fought for his country in Afghanistan. Then he fought bureaucrats to stop his eyesight from disappearing.

The former Canadian Forces paratrooper battled Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to pay for the laser surgery he needed to correct an eye condition that was thwarting his efforts to learn a skilled trade – a condition that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes as being a hazard of Afghanistan even though VAC does not.

The VAC bureaucrats “want me to stay home and not work because I have back injuries and I have knee injuries,” Mr. Khosho said. “But the only way that I can be at peace and I can relax is when I am actually doing something, when I am actually working with my hands.”

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Mr. Khosho’s vision was perfect when he entered the military. He was a marksman. But, in the dry desert of Afghanistan, he found himself constantly rubbing sand from his eyes and, gradually, his vision began to go.

He was given a medical discharge in 2012 for a number of conditions, including PTSD, and decided to become a welder. SISIP Financial, the military’s insurance provider, agreed to pay for the training. But, eventually, Mr. Khosho could no longer see the lines of metal he was trying to fuse.

He had developed keratoconus – a condition that causes progressively blurred and distorted vision. It can be hereditary. But his doctor said in a letter to VAC that it is more often caused by “frequent rubbing of the eyes secondary to something in the environment or allergies. My understanding is that Mazen was exposed to significant environmental factors” in Afghanistan.

The doctor said Mr. Khosho would need a procedure called corneal cross linking to halt the deterioration. The treatment costs more than $5,000 and is not covered by Ontario’s public-health plan.

Open this photo in gallery Mazan Khosho says he just wants to get a decent job after he was medically discharged from the Canadian Forces after serving in Afghanistan. Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail

VAC said in an e-mail on Tuesday that it recognizes keratoconus to be a service-related injury, and will pay benefits when the first symptoms are associated with deployment to a specific area and when there is something about the area that causes excessive eye rubbing.

But when Mr. Khosho asked the department to pay the bill, he was denied twice in writing and several times over the phone. One of the denial letters said: “We have no medical evidence to relate your keratoconus of your right and left eye to your service in Afghanistan.”

Mr. Khosho said he was told by a case manager that there was no point in fighting the battle because the link between the condition and the deployment would be too difficult to prove. “But my wife kept on pressing and was persistent,” he said.

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Eventually, the department agreed to pay for the treatment, saying the keratoconus could have been caused by a chemical spill that occurred when Mr. Khosho was working at a Canadian Forces base. But his doctors have said chemical spills do not cause the condition, Mr. Khosho said.

If VAC starts linking keratoconus to Afghanistan, the deparment will have to look at all the Afghanistan vets who developed it, Mr. Khosho said, “and that is something they don’t want to deal with.”

The Americans, on the other hand, do attribute the conditions of Afghanistan to the onset of keratoconus.

More than one representative of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs told Mr. Khosho that, if the Canadian government does not fully compensate him for the corneal cross linking and the continuing medical attention he requires, he can apply to the United States for compensation because Afghanistan was a joint effort. The USDVA recently sent him the forms to start a claim.

The only way that I can be at peace and I can relax is when I am actually doing something. — Mazen Khosho

Getting the eye treatment meant the former soldier could resume his career training. But his vision will never be restored to the level required of a welder. So Mr. Khosho asked the department to allow him to switch from welding to an apprenticeship in pipe fitting, which is more forgiving of bad eyes.

The VAC vocational-rehabilitation counsellor made it clear she did not want to approve the funding for a new training program, said Mr. Khosho’s wife, Rita Potestio.

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Mr. Khosho did two days of physical tests demanded by VAC before the switch would be considered. Then he started a third 10-hour day of psychological questioning. But his PTSD kicked in and he felt an overwhelming urge to flee. “The guy was getting too personal,” Mr. Khosho said.

He left the testing and went straight to his family doctor who called VAC and, after several “angry phone calls,” persuaded the department to allow Mr. Khosho to change his apprenticeships without a psychological assessment.

VAC said in an e-mail that it needs to “assess veterans’ rehabilitation needs and ensure a holistic approach” before it can pay for apprenticeships. “If one program had been approved and didn’t work out for medical reasons,” the department said, “VAC would look at what worked and what did not in that program to ensure that a second program would meet the veteran’s needs.”

But Mr. Khosho said it is clear to everyone why the welding program did not work for him. It was his eyesight.

“I am 34 years old going on 35. I know what I want at this point. I want to rejoin society and do something with my life,” he said. “They are so eager to put all of this money into not making me go back to work which makes absolutely no sense.”

Open this photo in gallery The only way he can be at peace is when he is actually doing something, says Mazen Khosho. Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail



