"30 hours of brain surgery"

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=1447d6c1c56538a7

Injured Marine recovering at home

By Daniel Huron
The Daily News

Published November 14, 2005

FRIENDSWOOD — Since returning to Friendswood in October, Lance Cpl. Steven Schulz has been a busy man. He’s been on television. He’s gone to the World Series and been honored during a football game at Friendswood High School, from which he graduated in 2002. He doesn’t seem to mind all of the attention, his mother, Debbie Schulz, said, but it has come at a price.

On April 19, Steven was riding in a humvee near Fallujah, Iraq, when a bomb exploded. Steven said he and his fellow troops were on routine surveillance when the attack occurred. It was 11:15 p.m. Texas time when Debbie received the call that her 21-year-old son had suffered a major head injury. Then, the waiting began.

Debbie said neither she nor her husband, Steven, heard any news about their son for about 24 hours. Then, she said, a woman who attends the Schulzes’ church told the family that she knew a Marine general and contacted him. Soon, Steven’s parents knew that their son was alive and in Baghdad.

Steven spent months at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He has undergone more than 30 hours of brain surgery, Debbie said, and through all the pain he’s endured, has only complained once, and that was when he had an appendectomy.

“He’s handled this remarkably,” Debbie said.

...more...

[marbuc]

1. Didn't know appendectomies accompany brain surgery.

Was it one of these "while I'm there..." deals?

[WiseButAngrySara]

3. Could have been, if he had internal abdominal injuries and adhesions

due to scar tissue caused an 'acute abdomen.' When the peritoneum is opened up surgically, the appendix is removed even if it's normal, so the abdominal surgical scars will usually indicate that an appendectomy has been performed, should the same patient end up in an E.R. comatose. (I think this is still routinely done.)

[marbuc]

7. Perhaps, but the story doesn't make that clear

and does not speak at all about battle abdominal injuries. I joked, because on the surface, an appendectomy seems COMPLETELY unrelated to the head injuries previously described. It could be that he came down with appendicitis, or incurred an abdominal injury as you suggested, but the randomness seemed worthy of a joke.

[DrDebug]

2. And he has to wait 12-18 months before they know whether it's successful

So if he is lucky, he'll be fine in a couple of years.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. As if this case weren't sad enough, it probably represents only the tip of

an undisclosed, under reported, iceberg of casualties.

[DrDebug]

5. There are many more

I always wonder who the lucky ones are. The ones who don't return or the ones who have to face a life which is permanently ruined.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts-photography/article_2387.jsp

Spc. Sam Ross

“It was the best experience of my life”



Sgt. John Quincy Adams

“My head doesn’t let me work”



Spc. Luis Calderon

“From my neckline down I cannot feel anything”



Pfc. Alan Jermaine Lewis

“Death has always been around”



And these are just four...

[MADem]

6. I have to strongly recommend that link of yours--stark photos, compelling

essays. Everyone in Congress should be required to read it. Just to get a taste...

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. Have you posted this as a separate thread? It' s so moving. ....n/t