Ryan Goggin in the Fight For His Life

Army veteran battles to fund cancer treatment
ABC 10 News Miami
By Amy Viteri - Investigative Reporter
Posted: June 21, 2016

"I wasn't scared in the Army. I wasn't scared in Iraq," Ryan Goggin said. "I wasn't scared. But when they told me I had leukemia, I was scared." Ryan Goggin

MIAMI - An Army veteran who served in Iraq found an even bigger battle back in the United States, trying to get the Veterans Health Administration to fund his cancer treatment.

"I wasn't scared in the Army. I wasn't scared in Iraq," Ryan Goggin said. "I wasn't scared. But when they told me I had leukemia, I was scared."

Goggin served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.


In March, 2010 he was 10 months into a deployment in Iraq when a roadside bomb hit his truck. A traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder ended his military career.

Goggin, 29, was healthy and active, until January. He suddenly became so weak paramedics rushed him to the Miami VA hospital. From there he went to the University of Miami Hospital for further testing. The diagnosis was acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, a type of blood cancer.

He began chemotherapy at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and said officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs initially told him they would work to cover his full treatment there.
read more here