Here is Carolyn's latest account of her nephew's recovery. I think I might
have missed an update, but I'll send it also when I get back to it. *Smile*
Read the article, it's great!
April
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Justice
To: JUSTICE MIKE
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 1:53 AM
Subject: Updates from Jan. 11 & 12; & link to a newspaper article about
Nephew Stephen
01/11/2004 12:15 a.m. (CST) I just got home and had a message waiting
for me from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stephen has been admitted
to WRAMC. I called and spoke with him briefly, welcoming him home.
Rich (dad), Sue Ann (dad's girlfriend), Suzi (sister) and John
(brother-in-law) arrived in Washington DC about an hour before Steve.
Rich drove straight through, so he is pretty tired.
Sue Ann is a critical care nurse and is our eyes and ears medically.
She feels good about the hospital, orthopedic doctors, nursing care and
occupational and physical therapists. This is the premier military
hospital and it is where we want Steve to be; the staff at WRAMC are
specialists in recuperating soldiers recovering from battle.
I hope that I am able to give an accurate accounting of Steve's current
condition as told to me by the family. Consider that it has been two
weeks since his body was hit by the explosion. Swelling and redness
have lessened. His body, pock-marked by the shrapnel is developing
scar tissue. The brunt of the injuries are to his left leg. His knee
is completely missing all skin. The tib/fib bones (long bones in his
calf) do not break through the skin. They are stabilized by the
external fixator screwed into his leg. His big toe, reattached in
Baghdad has a large pin holding it in place. (Suzi said that it looks
like an allen wrench sticking out of the top of the toe.) From what I
understand, his foot is missing most of the bones.
Steve showed the family pieces of shrapnel that have been removed thus
far. Sue Ann said that a piece of shrapnel that was removed from his
flack-jacket was large enough that he would have lost his life if he
had not been wearing the ceramic chest plate.
Stephen is scheduled for his first surgery at WRAMC tomorrow. After
surgery, we hope to have some idea of what the extent of his injuries
are. It will be so hard not to be with him tomorrow.
I received a phonecall on Friday afternoon from a representative from
the American Legion who coordinated a donated round-trip ticket for me
to be with Stephen. The ticket is being provided by www.heromiles.org.
This is an organization that coordinates travel for those in my
situation with donated frequent flyer miles. I will be making all of
the travel arrangements for my trip on Monday.
If you would like to send cards, etc., to Steve, his address is:
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Patient: 2 Lt Stephen E Rice
Ward 65
6900 Georgia Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20307-5001
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01/12/04: Stephen underwent his first orthopedic surgery today. This
was an exploratory surgery. They were able to close the wounds on his
knee and lateral leg gash without using skin grafts. The doctors
cleaned the wounds, investigated the condition of his bones and took
cultures. They cannot begin bonework until all tests have been
completed, results are back and decisions made. We await their
counsel.
At Walter Reed AMC, the physicians work in teams and all decisions about
their serious patients are made after consulting with one another. The
family got to see him in the recovery room before they left town.
A highlight of the day...Steve had a celebrity visitor stop by...Jeff
Gordon (NASCAR driver). Rich took a couple pictures of Jeff and Steve.
We found out that Steve doesn't have any clothes at all. The only thing
he had was the clothes he was wearing from Landstuhl. The social
services liason went to JCPenney and bought him some socks, t-shirts
and boxers. In the two weeks since the bombing, he has lost a dramatic
33 pounds and is down to 144 pounds. This really bothers him and he
can't wait to get to start working on his upper body strength again.
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This is a really good article all about Stephen which is in --The State
Journal-Register :
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/14270.asp
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