Armed Forces convene patients in a vegetative state
A 19-year-old from the Austrian state of Carinthia has been in a coma for six years. The army wanted to call him up anyway.
According to an ORF report, the Austrian Armed Forces sent a draft notice to a coma patient. There is compulsory military service in Austria. The 19-year-old’s mother told the television station that she had recently been called up for a draft for her 19-year-old son. Her son has been in a vegetative state for six years.
They immediately sent all medical reports and certificates to the army and even phoned the responsible commander, the mother reports to ORF. The reaction of the army followed promptly: Another call-up. Reason: Nino did not show up for the examination without an excuse.
Conscription has been suspended in Germany since 2011. It’s different in Austria: there, young men still receive their draft notices and have to go to the draft. The Bundesheer, as the army is called in the Alpine Republic, does not even stop at the seriously ill in at least one case.
Federal army threatens coma patients with military police
Her mother even threatened her with being called the military police. The police then called on Monday and informed them that there was an arrest warrant for their son.
A spokesman for the Carinthia military command told ORF that this was a “regrettable incident”. The documents submitted, which the woman had sent to the responsible office, did not appear there. If these documents emerge, the family will not be bothered and the case will be closed.