Frank's fight: Sergeant succumbs to head injury suffered in Iraq

[frogcycle]

you have to register to read the article, so i copied the entire thing:



Frank's fight: Sergeant succumbs to head injury suffered in Iraq
By Mark Emmons
Mercury News
Article Launched: 06/19/2007 01:29:01 AM PDT




6/12/2007 - Palo Alto, CA -- Frank Sandoval and his wife Michelle enjoyed repeated warm reunions with hospital staff when they returned to the Palo Alto VA hospital last week , such as this one with occupational therapist Smita Shukla, right, while he was en route to a doctor's appointment Tuesday June 12, 2007 . He returned to the hospital, where they spent 10 months last year while he recovered from a traumatic brain injury. The surgery was June 13, 2007 and shortly after the operation doctor's detected severe post-operative brain swelling.They performed emergency surgery to removed the skull flap. Sandoval never regained consciousness and Monday, June 18, 2007 after a second series of neurological exams failed to detect any brain activity, doctors told his family that he was brain dead. (As of the writing of this caption), the family is planning to donate some of his organs for transplant. (Pauline Lubens / Mercury News



Sgt. Frank Sandoval, who touched the hearts of Bay Area residents with his story of perseverance and courage after being severely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, was declared brain dead Monday from complications following surgery.

His family made the decision to keep Sandoval, 27, on a ventilator until seven of his organs can be harvested for donation, probably today.

"I really hope someone can use his heart," his wife, Michelle, said through tears. "And if another man can love a woman as much as he loved me, that would make me very happy."

Mercury News readers became intimately familiar with the Sandovals last year when they allowed a newspaper reporter and photographer to follow every step of Sandoval's recovery from traumatic brain injury at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs hospital. The couple wanted the public to have a better understanding of the trials faced by wounded service members and their families.

Their journey, chronicled in a five-part series last December called "Frank's Fight," has come to a sad and unexpected end.

The Sandovals returned to Palo Alto earlier this month from their home in Yuma, Ariz., so Frank could have surgery to implant an artificial "bone flap" - a prosthesis that would replace the portion of his skull lost in the November 2005 explo sion.


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[ribrepin]

1. God, I wish this would stop

So many good young men gone or with life altering injuries. I just want to make Bush-Cheney feel 1/10 of the pain these families are forced to feel.

[frogcycle]

2. earlier related article

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/10519978/detail.html

[frogcycle]

3. The DoD does not list him as a casualty

He was not KIA.

[frogcycle]

4. followup

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6180700

[frogcycle]

5. Fisher House

http://www.fisherhousepa.com/SanMateoCountyTimes04-04.pdf