In January 2009 a friend and fellow member of the Oregon chapter of Military Families Speak Out learned that her son, David Regan, had been hit by an IED while serving in Iraq. David had a serious head wound and she flew to Germany to be with her comatose son and asked for prayers and good wishes to be sent his way. We all feared the worst but eventually he was flown back to the US to continue treatment for traumatic brain injury and an uncertain future.

About a year later, the doctor who attended David on his flight from Iraq to Germany in those first crucial hours wanted to find out how his patient had done and happened upon this blog via a Google search and I was able to put him in touch with David’s mother who in turn put him in touch with David. Dr Michael Chesher was greatly relieved to know that David had survived but also knew his recovery would be a long hard haul and the two have remained in contact.

Below is the story of David’s flight from Iraq just hours after being wounded and a taste of the heart and soul of the people that fight to bring these kids home. Posted on his Facebook page a couple of days ago, Dr Chesher in his own words –

I have meant to share this story for some time. It just gets better. When I was in Iraq, I flew a young soldier from Balad to Germany. He had a devstating head wound and had arrested multiple times before I got him. All of his numbers were wrong. Blood pressure low, Intracranial pressure too high. We hovered over him for >12 hours adjusting meds…fighting for every brain cell. I felt horrible. I knew I was failing him as I could barely keep his numbers near an acceptable range. When we landed in Germany he was on 9 IV drips. Whenever we flew missions up to Landstuhl we would peek in his ICU room, desparate for some good news…all I got were frowns and shaking heads from his nurses. On one of the rare nights we were allowed to stay in Germany before flying back, I bumped into his neurosurgeon in a bar. He told me David had a shot at a reasonable recovery…I did not belive him, of course. Anyway, I came home and spent a year secretly hating myself for not being able to do more for this soldier (despite all the good work we did–Ironic I know) Around Christmas of 2010, I had managed to pull together enough data points form an internet search to meet a woman who is a friend of David’s mother (thank you Mary Geddry!) I then called David’s mother, Marlene, despite fears that I was going to hear how our system failed her son. On the contrary, she told me he was doing better than I would have dared fantasize. She told me how he was awarded a medal for his bravery during the Ft Hood shooting attack when he rescued other veterans less able-bodied than himself. I subsequently was able to talk to him on the phone. That made my Christmas last year! His speech was impaired, but again I was ecstatic that he was doing so well. He has had an amazing ordeal with rehab and recovery…
Now we come to the above video. He called me this morning and I was amazed at how normal his speech sounded. Here he is in this video (David Regan) looking….well….awesome. Words fail me. He is an exceptional human being! As are the many wounded warriors we are so proud to serve. Military medical people are afforded so much appreciation by the troops we serve, but those troops probably have no idea that it is us, the medics, that consider ourselves honored and priveleged to be permitted to serve them.

Merry Christmas to Dave, his mom Marlene and his little girl and to Dr Chesher and all those before and after who work so hard to bring our loved ones back to us.