Hinchey addresses the panel

WASHINGTON – Marine Sgt. Carmelo Rodriguez of Ellenville died in 2007 at the age of 29 after serving in Iraq from a melanoma on his buttocks that was misdiagnosed by military doctors.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey has introduced legislation that would reverse a current 50 year old federal law that prohibits such lawsuits and he testified about it before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

Rodriguez’s sister, Ivette Rodriguez, traveled to Washington, DC to address the lawmakers imploring them to change the law. “I speak not just for my whole family who miss my brother dearly including his young son Carmelo Rodriguez IV, but I speak for the countless other military families that have been forced to confront similar situations,” she told the panel.

Hinchey, meanwhile, explained his legislation and said it would not apply to those who are wounded or killed in battle, but just military personnel like Sgt. Rodriguez whose condition was misdiagnosed, causing him his life.