It wasn't a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez of Springfield three years ago, after just nine days in Iraq. Instead, it was an injection into his arm before his Marine Corps unit left the United States.

It left Lopez in a coma, paralyzed and unable for a time to breathe on his own. He can walk now but with a limp. He has to wear a urine bag, has short-term memory loss and must swallow 15 pills daily to control leg spasms and other ailments.

Yet Lopez doesn't qualify for a special GI benefit of up to $100,000 for troops who suffer traumatic injuries.

It seemed "pretty traumatic to me," Lopez said. "I could have easily died or not been able to walk because of that. It destroyed my world."

Lopez suffered a rare reaction to the smallpox vaccine. The vaccine is not mandatory but the military strongly encourages troops to take it.

Even though his medical problems would not have occurred had he not been deployed, the benefit was denied. Never mind that qualifying injuries don't have be the result of combat, that a service member could be eligible because of a car accident on the way to the grocery store.

The hang-up is his injuries were caused by a vaccine. Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs say they're just following what is considered to be the intent of Congress.

The benefit is "for traumatic injury, not disease, not illness, not preventive medicine," said Stephen Wurtz, deputy assistant director for insurance. "It has nothing to do with not believing these people deserve some compensation for their losses."

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