There was a distinction between battle related injuries and non-battle related injury. The distinction lay with the soldiers themselves: an injury related to combat was heroic; an injury related to a non-battle injury was pathetic.
I had been unable to walk for two weeks, and I was not getting better. The decision was made to medevac me to Germany for further care. I left on March 17, 2009. After I left FOB Sykes, I was transferred to Tikrit for a quick helicopter change. The medical personnel took great care of me. It was so cold in the helicopter that I was shivering even under two wool blankets. I had been heavily medicated so I would sleep through the transport, but I was still in that half-asleep, half-awake state. They wrapped me up in these hot blankets and then wrapped me in a large metallic blanket—they called it a burrito wrap! It was the warmest I’d been all night. It was wonderful. They took my vitals and were so caring and warm that I didn’t want to leave!
Sometime the next day, my next helo arrived and in what seemed like a split second, the crew moved me quickly without any effort. Their entire team was awesome. I arrived in Ballad to be greeted by yet another medical team. They were ready for me and had me in-processed in about two seconds! I have never seen such efficiency.
After my assessment, they gave me quite a heavy dose of meds. I had a reaction to one of them and was nauseated, so they gave me the standard medication: Phenegran.
Who knew I was severely allergic to it? Oh my God. I spent the next eight hours trying to crawl out of my skin, interlaced with hallucinations. I lost my ability to talk, and I froze intermittently like a statue. The last thing I remember was the entire medical team surrounding me and telling me not to worry, they were with me, and I was going to be okay. I woke up the next day around 1400 with no further side effects. That was so scary. But it gave all of us a way to joke about it; it was pretty awful, but afterwards, when they were telling me I was asking for oatmeal and talking to people who were not there, it was humorous.
As I came out of the allergic reaction I was able to use a wheelchair to scoot around the medical area. Because of the allergic reaction, I missed the next flight to Germany, and I went instead on the following day.
They bundled me up and placed me in the huge medevac plane on a litter. This plane was so amazing—there were soldiers there with serious issues, freshly amputated limbs, head wounds, chest wounds—and everyone had personal medical teams. It was the most amazing staff I have ever seen. The medical folks were comforting; they kept talking, plumping pillows, giving meds, providing a hand to hold, and they never stopped—there was so much love and care in the air that you couldn’t help but smile and thank God that you were under their care.
