USWarWatch.org - Stories of the Wounded

We mourn the dead. We protest the war and we work for peace. But all too often, we forget those who come home in pain. Please remember those whose bodies, minds, and hearts have been broken by the warring of our nation. The following stories are meditations on the horror that is our current reality, reminders for an awakened collective conscience.... - Roger Straw, websteward

March 31, 2007
Wounded veterans at risk of epilepsy

PITTSBURGH, PA , (3/21/07), [JAMIE TALAN, Newsday]
Epilepsy experts worry that veterans arriving home with traumatic brain injuries are at risk for seizures, which could be subtle and develop months to several years after their initial injury.

''Epilepsy is very common following head injury,'' said Dr. Marc Dichter, professor of neurology and pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of dozens of speakers at an epilepsy meeting held Thursday and Friday at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md.

''We are concerned that we will have a growing number of young people with head injuries who may develop epilepsy,'' he said....(continued...)

March 24, 2007
Dog owners raise money for injured James Fair

PITTSBURGH, PA , (3/21/07), [CBS, KDKA.com]
Back in November of 2003, Army Specialist James Fair, 25, of Coraopolis, was completely blinded after a bomb detonation. He also lost both his hands and was left with shrapnel throughout his body causing injuries to his right leg and a traumatic brain injury.

Recently, organizers at the Home and Garden Show came together with Duquesne Light, Homes For Our Troops to help raise money to build Fair a new house.

And today local dog owners helped to raise funds in hopes of buying Fair a guide dog....(continued...)

March 21, 2007
Wounded Joe Baumann faces bureaucratic dilemma

ROHNERT PARK, CA, (3/21/07), [R. Tempest, LA Times]
A sniper shot Sgt. Joe Baumann on a Baghdad street in April 2005. The AK-47 round ripped through his midsection, ricocheted off his Kevlar vest and shredded his abdomen.

The bullet also ignited the tracer magazine on his belt, setting Baumann on fire.

Almost two years later, the 22-year-old California National Guard soldier walks with a cane, suffers from back problems and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that keeps him from sleeping and holding a job.

“He can’t even go to the grocery store by himself,” said his wife, Aileen, also 22.

The question pending before a military review board at Fort Lewis is whether to grant Baumann a military disability pension and health care or cut him an $8,000 check for his troubles.... (continued...)

...more about Baumann and others like him in the 3/17/07 San Francisco Chronicle.

March 12, 2007
Rick Samson: A freak accident, then a red-tape nightmare

STEWARTSTOWN, NH, (3/11/07), [UnionLeader.com]
...Rick Samson was 58-years old when his New Hampshire Army National Guard unit, the 2nd of the 197th Field Artillery Unit out of Berlin, was sent to Iraq three years ago.

...Samson's platoon was sent to Tikrit, where most of their time was spent transferring prisoners and detainees and escorting equipment. Samson was injured in a freak accident, when he was struck while taking a physical fitness test by a Humvee driven by an Army soldier who had fallen asleep after 8 hours of road duty followed by overnight guard duty. That was on April 30, 2004.

The vehicle mirror hit Samson's shoulder and spun him around. "I bounced off the back of the Humvee, and split my head open."

"They stapled my head up and I stayed right there in country and continued to operate until about the middle of October."

That's when his wife of 40 years, Linda, met him in Frankfurt, Germany, for his leave. "The second morning she said you're going to a doctor...All you do (at night) is lay there and moan and groan."

An Army doctor in Germany told Samson the accident had severed the tendons in his shoulder. Samson was sent home to Fort Dix in New Jersey, and then assigned to Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts as part of a then-new program to treat wounded soldiers in their own communities.

As months turned into years Samson underwent several surgeries, first for his shoulder, then to replace a hip that was injured in the original accident. Last September, surgeons operated on the other shoulder.

...Last June, Samson turned 60, the retirement age for the National Guard. And that's when the bureaucratic entanglements began that he and his wife say was perhaps as stressful as the physical pain he's endured. His paperwork's been lost, mixed up; he's still waiting for his first retirement check. And he's had to cancel medical appointments and physical therapy while he waited for confirmation of insurance coverage. "It's been a horror show and a nightmare," he said.....” (more...)

March 8, 2007
D.J. Emery develops complications
Florida man has blood infection

BELEFONTE, FL , (3/08/07), [Bradenton Herald]
...David Emery, Jr., of Belefonte, "who was critically wounded in Iraq last month has taken steps toward recovery but at the same time developed new life-threatening complications, according to his mother.

..."D.J." is in intensive care at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., suffering from a long list of severe wounds and related illnesses after a suicide bomb attack in Anbar province in Iraq on Feb. 7.His legs were essentially shattered, as was an arm, by the suicide blast, which killed another Marine. Emery also suffered a severe abdominal wound. The Marine remains on a ventilator and undergoes dialysis because his kidneys are not functioning on their own.While Emery is now aware of his surroundings and able to communicate by pointing to letters of the alphabet, he has developed a blood infection that is causing veins and other blood vessels to collapse, said Connie Emery, the injured Marine's mother.

"It's breaking his body down," she said in a telephone interview from Bethesda, Md., where she and her son's pregnant wife, Leslie, have been staying....” (more...)

March 7, 2007
Patrick Scrogin sustains serious injuries in Iraq
Helicopter Accident

MOBERLY, MO, (3/03/07), [Moberly Monitor-Index]
...Patrick Scrogin, 24, was seriously injured Thursday [3/1/07]... According to Scrogin's brother... Patrick and his co-pilot were aboard an OH-58 Kiowa when the helicopter's computer failed. “It was going 90 knots (just over 103 mph) when it went down,” he said. “It sheared the bottom of the helicopter...."

Scrogin's injuries are extensive. The two pilots were first taken to an American military hospital in Kirkuk, about 180 miles north of Baghdad. Currently he is in Landstuhl, Germany and Scrogin said he will probably be moved to Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., by Tuesday.

“So far,” said Scrogin, “he has lost his left leg below the knee and three fingers on his left hand. He has a crushed pelvis, five fractured vertebra in his upper back and fractured facial bones.” (more...)

March 3, 2007
Fundraiser for Shurvon Phillip
Family Needs $100K For Handicapped-Accessible Home

CLEVELAND, OH , (12/01/06), NewsNet5.com ]
A young Ohio man's life was changed forever by wounds he suffered in Iraq, and now his friends and family are hoping to raise the money needed to improve his quality of life.

...Last year, Sgt. Shurvon Phillip was on patrol when his Humvee hit a roadside bomb. Phillip took the brunt of the explosion. [He] ...is now confined to a wheelchair, trapped in a body he cannot control.

...Phillip understands everything going on around him. To respond favorably, he flares his nostrils or blinks his eyes. He keeps his face deadpan to show that he's thinking about something or to respond unfavorably.

...their home is an apartment in East Cleveland. ...it is now too small to properly care for the retired Marine. With a fundraiser this weekend, they're hoping to raise $100,000 for a handicap accessible house in Richmond Heights.

It's one more way life has forever changed for the 25-year-old.... Still, his mother has not given up hope that she will hear the comfort of her son's voice again. "I'm hoping that one day a miracle is going to happen where at least I can hear my son say, 'Mom it's going to be alright....'" (more...including video and how to contribute)

February 25, 2007
Injured Christopher Edward's life may soon ease
Non-profit helping renovate family's home.

[CIBOLO, TX, (2/25/07), Graeme Zielinski, San Antonio Express-News ]
Since he has been home from the hospital, the simple task of taking a shower has been a sort of awkward minuet for Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Edwards, a victim of burns in Iraq, and his wife and partner for this strange dance date, Tammy.

It involves hopping to the bathroom door of their Cibolo home, rising and sitting in a wheelchair and, depending on how much verve either of them possesses, a cradle lift to get him seated beneath the water. After the shower, reverse the steps and repeat.

To hear them describe it, the performance typically takes more than an hour — and the spending of as much mental energy as physical. Edwards, 35, acknowledges the toll, saying of his condition while sucking on a painkilling lollipop that "it's probably harder on the family."

This includes their 5-year-old, Riley, and Edwards' sons Ryan, 13, and Michael, 10, from a previous marriage.

But things soon may get a little bit easier.

Rebuilding Together Inc., a Washington-based nonprofit group with a local affiliate, is tearing up the bathroom and making other renovations to the couple's brick home, all to further ease Edwards' convalescence.

When the work is done.... (more..)

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