An easy way to save the lives of Heroes...
Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:34 am
Spending time at Balboa has been a soul-stirring experience. I've met so many young men and their families who make it almost an embarrassment to admit my boy got hurt playing soccer...
One, especially, has embedded himself in my mind, and I figure you guys will understand...
Corey is a Marine, and was loading up to head back to the sand-box for another deployment when he started feeling ill... Off to the doc, run some tests -- he's got Leukemia. I'm not real clear on what happened next, but apparently he had some intestinal complications, and had strong, specific orders that NOTHING was to be administered rectally.
They needed to do a (?CT?) scan on him, but he was unable to keep the contrast-agent down after drinking it. Some Rad-tech, in a moment of utter stupidity, ignored the orders, ignored the special "danger/precautions!" wrist-band, and administered it rectally.
The kid's gut popped, which led to peritonitis and then septicemia. The Doctors told his family he was going to die, and they all said their goodbyes, but those Docs just didn't know Corey. He simply refused to die. Somehow MRSA became involved -- the kid had a literal body-wide case of sepsis, loaded with resistant staph.
As he became sicker, his body shunted all its efforts to his brain and his core, abandoning his limbs, apparently not even bothering to oxygenate them. The Docs somehow managed to save his arms and hands, but he lost both his legs above the knee. Somehow, he still refused to die, and has continued to defy all prognoses, all efforts of the entire universe to remove him from this plane. Though he's still on "universal" precautions, he's apparently getting better all the time. At this point, now that he's pretty much out of the woods as far as all the MRSA/sepsis is concerned, the plan is to do a bone-marrow transplant to try to kill his Leukemia without killing Corey.
If you've been able to read the aforegoing without being utterly stunned at such courage in the face of such suffering, either I've done a poor job of conveying the reality or you've lost whatever heart once blessed your being. This is a TOUGH young man, who has literally beaten the biggest, most evil opponent known to man -- repeatedly.
I cannot even imagine what I would feel if I were in his shoes -- fear? Definitely. Anger? Oh yeah. Depression? Probably. Worry? Yup. See -- this is why I consider this young man to be a hero... Where you or I would probably be wrapped up in our own -- considerable -- problems, this Marine is not.
He's scared because his friends are in harm's way, and he's not there to do his job -- to look out for them.
He's mad because he didn't get to deploy with his friends - he's angry at the Docs, at the UNIVERSE - for keeping him from doing his duty.
He's depressed because he can't get out of his room, pick up his rifle, and watch his buddies' "six."
He's worried about THEM -- that something will happen to THEM because he's not there to carry on the tasks he performs on their team.
He's basically pushing the Docs, his family -- EVERYONE around him -- to get him some legs so he can go do his job. None have had the heart -- or possibly the B@ll$ -- to tell him that he's not likely to ever fight again as he did, that even with his new "bionic legs" he won't be able to go back to slugging through the sand and dodging insurgent/Taliban bullets.
I met another young Marine with Leukemia -- much more lucky than Corey, but he too is in a holding-pattern, waiting and praying for a donor to be found before it's too late for him. He too is focused on getting better so he can go do his job, and look out for his team.
I've got an Appt. on Thursday to give blood, (I'm "CMV Negative" so my blood is precious to them) and be tested to see if I can donate marrow to them or anyone else.
For the record, the current technology for donation is apparently no more painful and LESS stressful than giving blood -- they take out your blood, spin out the marrow (stem cells??) and give you back everything else. It only takes a couple of hours.
SURELY all you freedom-loving men could find a couple of hours to go get tested, and to donate if a match is found. For the most part, it doesn't matter what meds you're on -- I was worried my pain patch and meds would be a problem, but with the marrow-thing they don't care at all about most meds so long as you don't have HIV, Hep, or other dangerous contagion. For giving blood, apparently still most meds are OK!! Even if you THINK you can't give for some reason, PLEASE call and **ASK**!!
If you're lucky enough to have never had CMV (cyto-megalo-virus -- apparently ALMOST EVERYONE gets this in childhood but I never did) then so much the better -- your blood can be used for burn patients, immuno-suppressed (post-transplant, for example) patients, etc.
PLEASE take the time to get tested -- don't let one of those heroes die when you could have prevented their death by simply giving a couple of hours of your time and putting up with a little needle-stick...
DD
PS: Here's a SELFISH reason to give blood: Some studies indicate that one reason women live longer than us is because they get some blood out of their body every month. This helps rid us of excess iron (like poison for men if too high!) and other heavy-metals, cholesterol, etc! Unless you have some condition that makes it bad for you, it's actually GOOD to give blood every month or so - it will IMPROVE your own health in addition to helping others!
One, especially, has embedded himself in my mind, and I figure you guys will understand...
Corey is a Marine, and was loading up to head back to the sand-box for another deployment when he started feeling ill... Off to the doc, run some tests -- he's got Leukemia. I'm not real clear on what happened next, but apparently he had some intestinal complications, and had strong, specific orders that NOTHING was to be administered rectally.
They needed to do a (?CT?) scan on him, but he was unable to keep the contrast-agent down after drinking it. Some Rad-tech, in a moment of utter stupidity, ignored the orders, ignored the special "danger/precautions!" wrist-band, and administered it rectally.
The kid's gut popped, which led to peritonitis and then septicemia. The Doctors told his family he was going to die, and they all said their goodbyes, but those Docs just didn't know Corey. He simply refused to die. Somehow MRSA became involved -- the kid had a literal body-wide case of sepsis, loaded with resistant staph.
As he became sicker, his body shunted all its efforts to his brain and his core, abandoning his limbs, apparently not even bothering to oxygenate them. The Docs somehow managed to save his arms and hands, but he lost both his legs above the knee. Somehow, he still refused to die, and has continued to defy all prognoses, all efforts of the entire universe to remove him from this plane. Though he's still on "universal" precautions, he's apparently getting better all the time. At this point, now that he's pretty much out of the woods as far as all the MRSA/sepsis is concerned, the plan is to do a bone-marrow transplant to try to kill his Leukemia without killing Corey.
If you've been able to read the aforegoing without being utterly stunned at such courage in the face of such suffering, either I've done a poor job of conveying the reality or you've lost whatever heart once blessed your being. This is a TOUGH young man, who has literally beaten the biggest, most evil opponent known to man -- repeatedly.
I cannot even imagine what I would feel if I were in his shoes -- fear? Definitely. Anger? Oh yeah. Depression? Probably. Worry? Yup. See -- this is why I consider this young man to be a hero... Where you or I would probably be wrapped up in our own -- considerable -- problems, this Marine is not.
He's scared because his friends are in harm's way, and he's not there to do his job -- to look out for them.
He's mad because he didn't get to deploy with his friends - he's angry at the Docs, at the UNIVERSE - for keeping him from doing his duty.
He's depressed because he can't get out of his room, pick up his rifle, and watch his buddies' "six."
He's worried about THEM -- that something will happen to THEM because he's not there to carry on the tasks he performs on their team.
He's basically pushing the Docs, his family -- EVERYONE around him -- to get him some legs so he can go do his job. None have had the heart -- or possibly the B@ll$ -- to tell him that he's not likely to ever fight again as he did, that even with his new "bionic legs" he won't be able to go back to slugging through the sand and dodging insurgent/Taliban bullets.
I met another young Marine with Leukemia -- much more lucky than Corey, but he too is in a holding-pattern, waiting and praying for a donor to be found before it's too late for him. He too is focused on getting better so he can go do his job, and look out for his team.
I've got an Appt. on Thursday to give blood, (I'm "CMV Negative" so my blood is precious to them) and be tested to see if I can donate marrow to them or anyone else.
For the record, the current technology for donation is apparently no more painful and LESS stressful than giving blood -- they take out your blood, spin out the marrow (stem cells??) and give you back everything else. It only takes a couple of hours.
SURELY all you freedom-loving men could find a couple of hours to go get tested, and to donate if a match is found. For the most part, it doesn't matter what meds you're on -- I was worried my pain patch and meds would be a problem, but with the marrow-thing they don't care at all about most meds so long as you don't have HIV, Hep, or other dangerous contagion. For giving blood, apparently still most meds are OK!! Even if you THINK you can't give for some reason, PLEASE call and **ASK**!!
If you're lucky enough to have never had CMV (cyto-megalo-virus -- apparently ALMOST EVERYONE gets this in childhood but I never did) then so much the better -- your blood can be used for burn patients, immuno-suppressed (post-transplant, for example) patients, etc.
PLEASE take the time to get tested -- don't let one of those heroes die when you could have prevented their death by simply giving a couple of hours of your time and putting up with a little needle-stick...
DD
PS: Here's a SELFISH reason to give blood: Some studies indicate that one reason women live longer than us is because they get some blood out of their body every month. This helps rid us of excess iron (like poison for men if too high!) and other heavy-metals, cholesterol, etc! Unless you have some condition that makes it bad for you, it's actually GOOD to give blood every month or so - it will IMPROVE your own health in addition to helping others!