HerNastyNotch
01-05-2006, 03:09 PM
sorry if this is long… it is worth it.
some of you know that my father had been in the hospital for two months after having surgery to correct five collapsed vertebra in his neck. he fell on some steps at a *mumblemumble* dealership and was partially paralyzed due to the injury to his spine.
my father is a marine and did some tours in vietnam during his 6-year stint. so he has treated by at the bay pines va hospital here in st. pete, and then he was transferred to the james a haley va medical center just across the bay over in tampa to have the spinal surgery.
they fused the five vertebra in his neck and added some metal. he stayed in the hospital for several weeks after the surgery to be monitored and to get him into physical therapy to teach him how to walk again, along with other daily tasks such as feeding himself and bathing.
while he was recuperating from the surgery and when he had gotten to the point where he could get up out of bed and into a wheelchair, he would wheel around the floor and visit with other hospitalized veterans. since he was in the recovery ward for neurology patients, he was visiting some men who were in pretty bad shape. he told me about one in particular that he spent most of his time with. my father talked about him quite frequently.
yesterday i took some time off from work and took my dad over to the va hospital in tampa for his first visit with the doctor since he was released from the hospital 4 weeks ago. after x-rays and meeting with the doctor, my dad took me upstairs to the ward where he spent his time recuperating. he wanted to see the nurses and pt techs he had during his stay and to personally thank them for the excellent care they gave him.
then he took me to meet the man he spent most of his free time with. his name is joshua cooley. i don’t know if any of you know of him or have heard about him, but i had the honor of meeting him yesterday.
joshua cooley is a pasco county (where i live) sheriff on the swat team. he is a third generation marine (lance corporal) as well as a son, husband, and father.
he was sent to iraq with the 4th assault amphibian battalion. on july 5, 2005 he had been deployed for just less than a year and he was providing armored transport and fire support to infantry units serving in al anbar. he received notification from a fellow marine who had just been injured by a car bomb alerting to the presence of the IED’s. a few moments later, josh’s assault vehicle was passing by a parked car which exploded. josh was struck just above the right eye with shrapnel which embedded in his brain and also suffered from a broken arm, collapsed lung, and severe burns to his face and hands. one of the pieces of shrapnel removed from his brain during one of the numerous surgeries he has already undergone was the size of a credit card.
josh was awarded the purple heart by president bush while he was in a medically-induced coma at the national naval medical center in bethesda. one of our state congresswomen made september 30 joshua cooley day.
however, at just 28 years old life as joshua has always known it will never be the same. he is confined to a wheelchair, blind in his right eye, still has pieces of shrapnel in his brain that they will never be able to remove, he cannot move his arms or legs, he cannot speak or communicate in any fashion at this point.
josh’s mother, christine, was there when my father and i walked in. she was sitting in a chair next to josh leaned over taking a nap with her forehead on josh’s arm. we spoke with her for a while and learned that josh had started eating solid foods over the last week or two and that he was starting to make sounds, but no words. she told us that when his wife and daughter were there that they went outside and his 3-year-old daughter was running around playing and that josh’s eyes followed every where that his little girl went. he wouldn’t take his eyes off her.
later as my father and i were leaving, the plastic surgeon appeared at the door to evaluate josh for surgery to help with the burn scarring and other deformations caused by the shrapnel and the surgeries he’s already had…
it makes tears well up in my eyes to think about his piercing blue eyes… to know that he is painfully aware of everything going on around him and completely helpless to interact.
now i know that josh is no more special than any other brave man who has died or been injured while serving our country. but for me, it was the first time that iraq became a reality in my life. i have never been directly involved with anyone having to deal with the effects of this war. meeting josh cooley brought that home to me. so in my eyes, joshua is very special.
some of you know that my father had been in the hospital for two months after having surgery to correct five collapsed vertebra in his neck. he fell on some steps at a *mumblemumble* dealership and was partially paralyzed due to the injury to his spine.
my father is a marine and did some tours in vietnam during his 6-year stint. so he has treated by at the bay pines va hospital here in st. pete, and then he was transferred to the james a haley va medical center just across the bay over in tampa to have the spinal surgery.
they fused the five vertebra in his neck and added some metal. he stayed in the hospital for several weeks after the surgery to be monitored and to get him into physical therapy to teach him how to walk again, along with other daily tasks such as feeding himself and bathing.
while he was recuperating from the surgery and when he had gotten to the point where he could get up out of bed and into a wheelchair, he would wheel around the floor and visit with other hospitalized veterans. since he was in the recovery ward for neurology patients, he was visiting some men who were in pretty bad shape. he told me about one in particular that he spent most of his time with. my father talked about him quite frequently.
yesterday i took some time off from work and took my dad over to the va hospital in tampa for his first visit with the doctor since he was released from the hospital 4 weeks ago. after x-rays and meeting with the doctor, my dad took me upstairs to the ward where he spent his time recuperating. he wanted to see the nurses and pt techs he had during his stay and to personally thank them for the excellent care they gave him.
then he took me to meet the man he spent most of his free time with. his name is joshua cooley. i don’t know if any of you know of him or have heard about him, but i had the honor of meeting him yesterday.
joshua cooley is a pasco county (where i live) sheriff on the swat team. he is a third generation marine (lance corporal) as well as a son, husband, and father.
he was sent to iraq with the 4th assault amphibian battalion. on july 5, 2005 he had been deployed for just less than a year and he was providing armored transport and fire support to infantry units serving in al anbar. he received notification from a fellow marine who had just been injured by a car bomb alerting to the presence of the IED’s. a few moments later, josh’s assault vehicle was passing by a parked car which exploded. josh was struck just above the right eye with shrapnel which embedded in his brain and also suffered from a broken arm, collapsed lung, and severe burns to his face and hands. one of the pieces of shrapnel removed from his brain during one of the numerous surgeries he has already undergone was the size of a credit card.
josh was awarded the purple heart by president bush while he was in a medically-induced coma at the national naval medical center in bethesda. one of our state congresswomen made september 30 joshua cooley day.
however, at just 28 years old life as joshua has always known it will never be the same. he is confined to a wheelchair, blind in his right eye, still has pieces of shrapnel in his brain that they will never be able to remove, he cannot move his arms or legs, he cannot speak or communicate in any fashion at this point.
josh’s mother, christine, was there when my father and i walked in. she was sitting in a chair next to josh leaned over taking a nap with her forehead on josh’s arm. we spoke with her for a while and learned that josh had started eating solid foods over the last week or two and that he was starting to make sounds, but no words. she told us that when his wife and daughter were there that they went outside and his 3-year-old daughter was running around playing and that josh’s eyes followed every where that his little girl went. he wouldn’t take his eyes off her.
later as my father and i were leaving, the plastic surgeon appeared at the door to evaluate josh for surgery to help with the burn scarring and other deformations caused by the shrapnel and the surgeries he’s already had…
it makes tears well up in my eyes to think about his piercing blue eyes… to know that he is painfully aware of everything going on around him and completely helpless to interact.
now i know that josh is no more special than any other brave man who has died or been injured while serving our country. but for me, it was the first time that iraq became a reality in my life. i have never been directly involved with anyone having to deal with the effects of this war. meeting josh cooley brought that home to me. so in my eyes, joshua is very special.