With the Iraq war producing a steady stream of severely wounded service members, the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs are struggling with calls to create a "seamless transition" for disabled warriors moving from active-duty medical care to long-term veterans' care.

For some war wounded and their families, the gaps between systems remain frustrating, even dangerous, according to stories shared during a meeting this month of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission.

"We've fallen through every crack imaginable," said Sarah Wade, wife of Army Sgt. Edward Wade, who was medically retired after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Edward Wade, 27, suffered severe brain injury and lost his right arm in February 2004 when a hidden bomb detonated beside his Humvee. He spent two months in a coma, during which the Army discharged him. That decision left Sarah, then Edward's fiancee, in the fight of her life to get Edward, a "poly-trauma" patient, the right combination of specialty care.

The VA has four "poly-trauma" centers and plans to build 21 more. The military, too, is moving to expand multitrauma capabilities. But the effort was too late, or existing facilities too far away, to help the Wades.

Sarah said she quit college and a part-time job to travel with Edward between VA hospitals in Richmond, Va., and Durham, N.C., Walter Reed Army Medical in Washington D.C., the hospital at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the couple's home in Chapel Hill, N.C. It has been a hectic and costly effort. But it thwarted VA plans, at one point, to keep Edward in a VA nursing home, with a World War II veteran as a roommate and no specialists on staff to treat brain trauma or to rehabilitate an above-elbow amputee, Sarah said.

The Wades' appearance before commissioners, with Edward using his remaining hand to move the microphone so Sarah could be heard, was the emotional centerpiece in a compelling afternoon of testimony. The commission is conducting a review of salaries and benefits for disabled veterans, family members and survivors. Congress recently extended the due date for the commission's report to October 2007

Army Capt. Marc Giammatteo, victim of a rocket-propelled grenade, described his more modest try to bridge health systems. After more than three months and 25 surgeries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to try to save his right leg, Giammatteo was granted convalescence leave to visit family in Connecticut. His only promise to his doctors was to continue physical therapy to rehabilitate his leg.

During therapy, however, a recent skin graft began to ooze. Walter Reed advised he apply special gauze available only by prescription. Giammatteo decided to try the nearby VA hospital. He was turned away.

"I was told I wasn't a veteran yet, that I was still on active duty and so they couldn't write a prescription for me," he said.

Commissioner Dennis McGinn, a retired vice admiral, said the right care is available for most veterans, but "bureaucratic and financial seams" are keeping many from getting the care they need and deserve.