'Most severely wounded' soldier endures: blind, quadriplegic, struggling to breathe

[babylonsister]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/24/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-Coming-Home-Wounded-Worst.php

'Most severely wounded' soldier endures: blind, quadriplegic, struggling to breathe
The Associated Press
Published: June 23, 2007


TAMPA, Florida: He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.

Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain.

The 24-year-old is one of the most severely injured soldiers — some think the most injured soldier — to survive.

"Three things you would not want to be: blind, head injury, and paralyzed from the neck down. That's tough," said Dr. Steven Scott, head of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Tampa VA Medical Center, where Briseno has twice been hospitalized for extensive care. In recent days, Briseno was hospitalized yet again, this time at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.

more...

[MedleyMisty]

1. Poor guy

I really think I'd rather be dead than live like that.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Sigh. Just like the Metallica 'One' remix.

[Disturbed]

6. This man has no choice.

He can't commit suicide even if he wanted to do so. Man, this is sad. The price he and so many are paying for the Busholini Regime's Illegal Invasion of Iraq and this Illegal Occupation.

[porphyrian]

35. That song is about the book and movie "Johnny Got His Gun."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0067277/

[BlooInBloo]

37. Yup.

[Tom Joad]

41. See an excerpt from the book, johnny got his gun

http://tomjoad.org/johnnygothisgun.htm

I first heard this from Mike Farrell, when in his pre-Mash days (and i was in my pre-adult days), spoke at an anti-war rally that was broadcast on TV... i read the book. It had an influence on me, no doubt.

[AwakeAtLast]

44. I posted the same thing in a different post

:cry:

Every time I read it, I am overcome.

:cry:

[rzemanfl]

3. A real live Dalton Trumbo character. God, how awful.....

and he was twenty when it happened. Thanks *.

[brentspeak]

5. I was thinking the same thing

Prayers to this brave soldier.

[rzemanfl]

8. Almost no one knows Morse code anymore. n/t

[deadmessengers]

12. A couple of hundred thousand ham radio operators still do.

It's a dying skill, but there are still people (myself included) who can understand and send Morse.

[rzemanfl]

39. What are the chances this poor guy knows Morse code? n/t

[0007]

4. Family photo

[malaise]

42. How sad is this?

:cry: :cry:

[MrSlayer]

7. You're better off dead than like that.

And for what? So Cheney and his pals can get richer. Sickening.

[rzemanfl]

9. Read "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo for the victim's

perspective.

[MrSlayer]

25. I'm familiar with it.

From the Metallica song "One" and the movie. I'd rather be dead.

[burrowowl]

28. Yes, the New Johnny Got His Gun

how terrible!

[deadmessengers]

10. would euthanasia be ethical and humane in this situation?

Serious question here. This seems to me to be one of those situations where euthanasia might be the most humane choice.

[Botany]

16. He can't breath on his own and he is @ high risk for infections ....

...... Euthanasia might be against the Family's values too.

Hospice would be good though.

Make him comfortable and free of all pain but time to stop this poor man's artificially continued life
from going on and on with no hope.

[cassiepriam]

17. What are the man's wishes? Does anyone know? Can he communicate?

[deadmessengers]

19. Apparently, he can grunt. n/t

He's not brain dead, and apparently can understand what's going on around him. He's got his hearing, but is unable to speak, see, move, or breathe on his own.

If they could figure out a way to find out his wishes, I wouldn't find any moral/ethical problem with euthanasia in this situation. He's in a truly hopeless and horrifying state.

[cassiepriam]

23. He is sentient, I would support what ever choice he made for himself.

I know what I would do, but it is an individual decision.

[Botany]

11. Love, support, and prayers to him, his family, and friends.

Joseph Briseno Jr. :cry:

[cassiepriam]

18. Yes, I am saying a Hail Mary right now for him.

[rodeodance]

13. look---the parents care for him

Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, then to McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. In December 2003, he went home, to Manassas Park, Virginia, where his parents, Joseph Sr. and Eva, quit their jobs to care for him.

"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet.

Various charities, especially Rebuilding Together, raised money to renovate their basement, supply a backup generator for the medical equipment, and install a lift so they can hoist "Jay," as they call him, into a chair and bathe him in a handicapped accessible bathroom.

"If you asked me this from the very beginning, if we can handle it, I wouldn't lie to you. I would say no, that there is no way. There's no way that we're going to learn all these things. But my wife and I, we learned everything. We are the respiratory technician, we are the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists ... his wound care nurse," Joseph Briseno said.

[cassiepriam]

15. This man is not getting VA care? ?????

[babylonsister]

20. When he needs hospitalization, the VA is there; otherwise, it sounds

like his parents are it.:( So, how many lives have been affected in this one family alone from this illegal occupation?

[cassiepriam]

24. The ripples of damage are incalculable and will go on for generations.

Here in the US and in Iraq.

[FloridaJudy]

22. Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn

These people have essentially lost their son, and now they lose their life savings?

There is NO excuse for this. None.

:mad:

But according to Laura, she and Georgie suffer more than anyone...
No you don't, Pickles. Not by a long shot.

[cassiepriam]

26. Yes indeed, we must not forget that Laura and George suffer more than anyone.

[Rosemary2205]

33. I do believe the parents made a choice to keep him at home.

I've since lost the link sorry, but I remember reading that they chose to bring him home rather than put him in a long term care facility covered by the VA. If my memory serves, at the time the nearest facility was too far away for the parents to visit on a daily basis. They thought they could keep Dad's job and still care for him at home and see him every day.

These choices are always difficult. They made the best choice they knew to make in an AWFUL situation. Emotionally it's probably been a better choice but financially, I doubt it's worked out the way they envisioned.

[cassiepriam]

14. Wounded Iraqis die from this kind of injury, they have little medical care.

I will say a prayer for all of them.

This man is in a hell made by the US govt.

[rasputin1952]

21. Jesus Christ...Johnny Got His Gun in real life...

:cry:

Dalton Trumbeau is crying in his grave...

[Ezlivin]

27. Mother Nature will "euthanize" him shortly

I'm a T-4 complete, not nearly as high as this guy, but my life span is appreciably shortened. Christopher Reeve was a C-2 complete and managed to make it nearly 10 years but only at $400K a year (and other expenses were "comped"). When I was injured back in 1980 I was first put into Tripler Army Medical Center. They were not equipped to much of anything other than keep me stable. After I stabilized they sent me off to the VAMC in Memphis (one of only three VA hospitals that had Spinal Cord Injury units.) See "Born on the Fourth of July"? The VA wasn't too damned far from that. (They've gotten much better.)

A high-level injury like that typically reduces one's lifespan by a considerable amount. He is very susceptible to upper respiratory infections; I lost a good friend who was a C-3 to pneumonia. All sorts of things simply do not function correctly when you are paralyzed and there are many ways for death to come knocking.

If I were him I would want a bottle of Tequila, a straw and a bottle of sleeping pills.

That's living, but it ain't life.

[Botany]

31. Back @ ya Ezlivin

Thanx for your wisdom on the subject. If you are ever in central OH look me.

All the best!

tom/ botany

[blues90]

29. This is to horrifing to take .

I can only speak for myself but if I knew someone in that state and hoping I knew their wishes if they were in such a state I would pull the plug , if it were me I would want the plug pulled .

I hear and see all of these stories of how troops now survive injuries that during Nam they never would and have to wonder if these vests are a good or bad thing , don't get me wrong , in some cases they will save a life but in some cases they allow a life of endless pain and hardship .

Personally , I would not wear the vest and take my chances , remember this is just me and my own options that I would choose to take .

People and their damn greed and wars , will it ever end .

[Solly Mack]

30. My blood boils

There was no need for this to happen. None.

My government did this for lies.

[many a good man]

32. Johnny Got His Gun

He shot up through cool waters wondering whether he'd ever make the surface or not. That was a lot of guff about people sinking three times and then drowning. He'd been rising and sinking for days weeks months who could tell? But he hadn't drowned. As he came to the surface each time he fainted into reality and as he went down again he fainted into nothingness. Long slow faints all of them while he struggled for air and life. He was fighting too hard and he knew it. A man can't fight always. If he's drowning or suffocating he's got to be smart and hold back some of his strength for the last the final the death struggle.

He lay back quietly because he was no fool. If you lie back you can float. He used to float a lot when he was a kid. He knew how to do it. His last strength going into that fight when all he had to do was float. What a fool.

They were working on him. It took him a little while to understand this because he couldn't hear them. Then he remembered that he was deaf. It was funny to lie there and have people in the room who were touching you watching you doctoring you and yet not within hearing distance. The bandages were still all over his head so he couldn't see them either. He only knew that way out there in the darkness beyond the reach of his ears people were working over him and trying to help him.

They were taking part of his bandages off. He could feel the coolness the sudden drying of sweat on his left side. They were working on his arm. He felt the pinch of a sharp little instrument grabbing something and getting a bit of his skin with each grab. He didn't jump. He simply lay there because he had to save his strength. He tried to figure out why they were pinching him. After each pinch there was a little pull in the flesh of his upper arm and an unpleasant point of heat like friction. The pulling kept on in short little jerks with his skin getting hot each time. It hurt. He wished they'd stop. It itched. He wished they'd scratch him.

He froze all over stiff and rigid like a dead cat. There was something wrong about this pricking and pulling and friction heat. He could feel the things they were doing to his arm and yet he couldn't rightly feel his arm at all. It was like he felt inside his arm. It was like he felt through the end of his arm. The nearest thing he could think of to the end of his arm was the heel of his hand. But the heel of his hand the end of his arm was high high high as his shoulder.

Jesus Christ they'd cut his left arm off.

They'd cut it right off at the shoulder he could feel it plain now.

Oh my god why did they do a thing like that to him?

They couldn't do it the dirty bastards they couldn't do it. They had to have a paper signed or something. It was the law. You can't just go out and cut a man's arm off without asking him without getting permission because a man's arm is his own and he needs it. Oh Jesus I have to work with that arm why did you cut it off? Why did you cut my arm off answer me why did you cut my arm off? Why did you why did you why did you?

He went down into the water again and fought and fought and then came up with his belly jumping and his throat aching. And all the time that he was under the water fighting with only one arm to get back he was having conversation with himself about how this thing couldn't possibly happen to him only it hadSo they cut myarm off. How am I going to work now? They don't think of that. They don't think of anything but doing it their own way. Just another guy with a hole in his arm let's cut it off what do you say boys? Sure cut the guy's arm off. It takes a lot of work and a lot of money to fix up a guy's arm. This is a war and war is hell and what the hell and so to hell with it. Come on boys watch this. Pretty slick hey? He's down in bed and can't say anything and it's his tough luck and we're tired and this is a stinking war anyhow so let's cut the damn thing off and be done with it.

My arm. My arm they've cut my arm off. See that stump there? That used to be my arm. Oh sure I had an arm I was born with one I was normal just I like you and I could hear and I had a left arm like I anybody. But what do you think of those lazy bastards cutting it off?

How's that I can't hear either. I can't hear. Write it down. Put it on a piece of paper. I can read all right. But I can't hear. Put it down on a piece of paper and hand the paper to my right arm because I have no left arm.

My left arm. I wonder what they've done with it. When you cut a man's arm off you have to do something with it. You can't just leave it Iying around. Do you send it to hospitals so guys can pick it to pieces and see how an arm works? Do you wrap it up in an old newspaper and throw it onto the junk heap? Do you bury it? After all it's part of a man a very important part of a man and it should be treated respectfully. Do you take it out and bury it and say a little prayer? You should because it's human flesh and it died young and it deserves a good sendoff.

*****

more....http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/General/JohnnyGotHisGun.html

[babylonsister]

34. God. I think I need to read that book again; it's been years. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. johnny got his gun

WW I, Iraq war, same dif.

[Rex]

38. War is bullshit.

Metallica

One

I Can't Remember Anything
Can't Tell If this Is True or Dream
Deep down Inside I Feel to Scream
this Terrible Silence Stops Me
Now That the War Is Through with Me
I'm Waking up I Can Not See
That There's Not Much Left of Me
Nothing Is Real but Pain Now

Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God,wake Me

Back in the Womb its Much Too Real
in Pumps Life That I must Feel
but Can't Look Forward to Reveal
Look to the Time When I'll Live
Fed Through the Tube That Sticks in Me
Just like a Wartime Novelty
Tied to Machines That Make Me Be
Cut this Life off from Me

Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God,wake Me

Now the World Is Gone I'm Just One
Oh God,help Me Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God Help Me

[Tom Joad]

40. Reminds me of a fictional story about war....

The novel “johnny got his gun” is the story of a young man, who like many others, goes to war because he is told by the leaders of his country to go to war. He is injured in that war as a bomb explodes next to him. He has lost both his legs. Both his arms. His hearing is lost, his eyes cannot see, his mouth cannot speak. He has no face. But, strangely he lives, if it can be called that, in a military hospital. The nurses pump the food into a hole in his stomach, they clean him, and he exists in his own world for years with no real communication with anyone. He then comes to realize he can communicate by Morse Code. By moving the stump of what is left of his body he can communicate to the world in dots and dashes. And finally there were people who understood what he was doing. A message is tapped on his stomach; he is asked “what do you want?” After reflecting on how he can have a meaningful life outside the virtual prison of this hospital, he comes to realize he has a special mission.

And then suddenly he saw. He had a vision of himself as a new kind of Christ as a man who carries within himself all the seeds of a new order of things. He was the new messiah of the battlefields saying to people as I am so shall you be. For he had seen the future he had tasted it and now he was living it. He had seen the airplanes flying in the sky he had seen the skies of the future filled with them black with them and now he saw the horror beneath. He saw a world of lovers forever parted of dreams never consummated of plans that never turned into reality. He saw a world of dead fathers and crippled brothers and crazy screaming sons. He saw a world of armless mothers clasping headless babies to their breasts trying to scream out their grief from throats that were cancerous with gas. He saw starved cities black and cold and motionless and the only things in this whole dead terrible world that made a move or a sound were the airplanes that blackened the sky and far off against the horizon the thunder of the big guns and the puffs that rose from barren tortured earth when their shells exploded.

More here:
http://tomjoad.org/johnnygothisgun.htm
but you should really read the book.

[roguevalley]

43. I don't know what to say. I wish he could go and have another life

somewhere else, where he is whole and well. Between this and the twin dying, I have no words.