Medical tech challenges families of wounded

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Medical tech challenges families of wounded
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 7:12:44 EST

Harold and Mary Mowl were shocked by what they saw when they first visited their son, Kevin, in the intensive care unit at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

A 150-pound bomb had exploded under Kevin’s vehicle in Baghdad on Aug. 2, 2007. The blast broke his left arm and leg, his back, ankles and feet. His face was swollen; his eye sockets, nose and jaw were shattered. Doctors later removed some of his skull to allow his brain to swell.

“We didn’t know where to touch him,” Harold Mowl said.

Clearly, the 21-year-old son he had brought up in Upstate New York had been largely erased by the roadside blast that killed three other soldiers and wounded 11, the father said. The massive brain damage had taken so much away.

”If he recovered, he would be someone else,” Harold said. “We said to each other right away: ‘We will take care of him no matter what.’ ”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/gns_wounded_longgoodbye_111008/%2e