July 12, 2004

• My DAV chapter's meeting went extraordinarily well this past Saturday. Unfortunately, we didn't have many members in attendance.

  
  

  At kinda the last minute, we lost our scheduled guest speaker. So I was asked to find out if the one I had lined up for our August meeting could do this one instead. She also was unavailable, so we were wracking our brains to figure out a replacement. One afternoon, the thought of my son's doctor came to mind. He had returned only last month from the US military hospital in Germany, where he had gotten sent for 4 months. I put in a call to his office & spoke to his secretary, who turned out to have been a childhood neighbor of mine. She let me know he would be pleased to come talk to us about his experiences as an orthopaedic surgeon for the soldiers injured in such as Iraq & Afghanistan.

  
  

  His presentation was wonderful! He informed us of some of the medical advances over centuries for war injuries as well as the types of injuries & how they are sustained in present day. Toward the end, he had some rather graphic pictures showing some of the injuries he had worked on. As he was closing his presentation, he displayed a picture many of us may have caught while watching the news &/or Reagan's funeral services. It was a young Marine, saluting Reagan's casket as it passed. There would be nothing unusual in that, except this young Marine was saluting with NO hand! He had lost both hands & his left arm just above his elbow, as well as multiple injuries to his legs in Operation Enduring Freedom.

  
  

  My son's doctor began to break down. His words caught in his throat as he told us that HE had been a part of the surgical team who worked on that young man & how seeing him saluting the casket during the funeral... Well... the team & he thought the young man was NOT going to survive his injuries! The doctor said thanks to all who have & are serving our country.

  
  

  One thing he mentioned is that our young troops still keep coming in daily, resulting in as many as 16 surgeries each day! He said that hospital in Germany is only an intermediary stop, where they continue the processes begun by the medical staff in the zones of conflict. They do what they can in Germany, then send them on to hospitals close to the service members' homes for continuing therapy. He had no way to follow up on the progress of the young Marine he thought wasn't going to survive.

  
  

  See... this doctor had been asked to join the National Guard, but originally said no... that he's not the military type. But after thinking about how much our service members contribute to our Nation, he realized that this was something he could do for them.

  
  

  He was originally called up to go to Afghanistan. Then they changed his orders to go to Iraq. Then... they cancelled his activation entirely! He fought this, having already made his arrangements for his practice. so they did manage to send him to Landstuhl, Germany. He also told us that he was not deployed with his unit (who are NOW scheduled to leave shortly!). He was sent as a single troop.

  
  

  He is the son of a former Hawaii State Senator & has a brother who served as a Representative to the Hawaii State House. He is also the surgeon who repaired my son's ACL last year. His mother is the first woman to be certified to perform surgery in the state of Hawaii (pediatric). He's come a long way.

  
  

  I knew when he told me of his initial deployment orders that he would not return unscathed. I know he's changed forever. It will be a long time before he recovers from seeing the atrocities man commits against man, whatever their supposed 'reason.' I know that it was difficult for me to keep the tears from forming in my eyes, because I could feel my heart twist as his did with his memories as he spoke.

  • 11:46 pm
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