Walter Reed Army Medical Center will review its procedures after the father of an Illinois soldier wounded in Iraq claimed his son was discharged wearing bloody hospital clothing and disoriented from pain medication, officials said Thursday.

“We have to find out why this happened and we’re going to,” said Col. Charles Callahan, chief medical officer and deputy commander at Walter Reed.

The soldier, Sgt. Ricki Hardyman, was never in any danger, but officials conceded that he and his parents did not get the assistance typically afforded to those wounded in combat.

The Washington, D.C., facility has treated nearly 5,500 casualties from Iraq, and this is the first known case in which the system broke down, Callahan said.

Sgt. Hardyman, 26, was recovering at Ft. Riley, Kan., Thursday and declined to comment. He said through a military spokeswoman that he was satisfied with his treatment and eager to return to his unit in Iraq.

On Thursday, Callahan said he spoke with the soldier’s father, who lives in Rockford. Officials, he said, are retracing the actions of hospital officials to determine where the system failed.
“Either we do not have a policy appropriate to this situation or we did have [the policies in place] and they were not upheld,” Callahan said. “I made no excuses to the father. We didn’t take care of his son.”

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