Brendan Marrocco Only Soldier to Lose All Four Limbs and Survive;
Heat of Bomb Instantly Cauterized His Wounds By David Martin
Sooner or later it had to happen - a soldier losing all four limbs and
yet surviving. It happened to Brendan Marrocco on Easter Sunday of 2009
in Iraq, when his vehicle tripped a roadside bomb.
"It just took both arms, my left leg off completely and my right leg
was still attached a little bit," Marrocco said, "and killed my gunner -
my best friend."
Then there's that nasty scar on his neck.
Brendan Marrocco, 23, works with a trainer at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington, DC. Marrocco, the first quadruple amputee of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive, lost both arms and legs to a
roadside bomb in Iraq on Easter Sunday, 2009. (CBS)
"Yeah, I severed my carotid artery," Marrocco said. "That alone
should have killed me."
Carotid artery severed, both arms and left leg completely off - why
didn't he bleed to death? The answer is a gruesome irony: the heat of
the blast instantly cauterized the same wounds it had caused.
"I was barely bleeding from them," Marrocco said. The same weapon
that took half his body saved his life. Just barely.
"I wasn't expected to live," Marrocco recalled. "I died three times
and came back." No pulse. "Flat-out dead."
Advanced Arm Dynamics not only builds prosthetic
upper limbs, but helps its patients get their lives back to normal
By Nick Peterson
The Times, May 13, 2010
When you first see Chino Acosta, there is
nothing unusual that catches your eye — even if you know beforehand that
he is missing an arm.
Then you look him up and down, and you see it. His
left hand. It looks a little different, but only slightly. If it was his
right hand, you wouldn’t hesitate shaking it.
But it’s his left hand, and he can do some amazing
things with it.
Acosta has a dynamic arm — an electronic
prosthesis, created by Tigard’s Advanced Arm Dynamics — an arm that
helps him lead a fairly normal life.
And he likes it a lot.
“One of the things I like about it is for driving,”
Acosta says, making a motion like he’s holding onto a steering wheel
with his artificial hand. “Driving is really comfortable.”
Acosta lost his hand in a job-related accident six
years ago. After some reconstructive surgery that didn’t produce the
results he was hoping for, he decided to have his arm amputated just
below the elbow. Then he came to Advanced Arm Dynamics and they built
him the arm he now uses — a myoelectric prosthesis that has rotation at
the wrist and an open-close function for the hand. And it looks
surprisingly natural.
Acosta’s face lights up with a little, sly smile as
he rotates his hand 360 degrees — something those of us with natural
hands can’t do.
The “skin” on his prosthetic hand and forearm is
made of silicone and painted to match Acosta’s natural skin. The forearm
even has hair taken from his other arm embeded in it.
The only problem, Acosta jokes, is that in the
summertime it doesn’t tan like his real arm.
The hand looks uncannily real, right down to the
veins on the top of the hand and the fingernails — which, by the way,
never need clipping.
The movement of the hand is limited. It is fixed in
a cupped, gripping shape, looking like it’s constantly ready to grab
something. Besides the unlimited rotation, its basic movement is to open
and close.
Those movements are controlled by the flexing of
two basic muscles in Acosta’s forearm. The twitching of one muscle
causes the hand to open and the twitching of another muscle causes it to
close. A quick flexing of respective muscles causes the hand to rotate
one way or the other.
Acosta said learning to use the arm was relatively
easy and only took a couple of weeks. Training begins with a computer
program that uses myotraining and simulation software to virtually
imitate the movement of the prosthetic hand.
“Before they even think about making you this,” he
says, motioning toward his prosthetic arm, “they train you on the
computer. By the time you get this, you just put it on, and no problem.”
Getting back to normal
Mac Lang, the clinical director and prosthetist of
the Adavanced Arm Dynamics Northwest Center of Excellence in Tigard,
says the company exclusively specializes in upper limb prosthetics. And
one of the things that sets the company apart from other prosthetic
providers is its emphasis on long-term rehabilitation.
“We provide the prosthesis, but we also provide the
rehabilitation for the patient to work that prosthesis into their
everyday life,” says Lang.
The clinic’s occupational therapy room is equipped
with various real-life objects which patients can train on to get used
to using their limb.
“Something as simple as stacking cones may not be
exciting or fun, and they often get tired of doing it here 100 times,”
Lang said. “Then they go out to Starbucks and have to pick up a cup of
coffee and because they’ve done it here 100 times, it takes the anxiety
away of having to do it in public in an uncontrolled setting.”
Lang says a typical patient for them is one who,
like Acosta, lost a limb in a job-related accident.
- "The military's Purple Heart award is hard-earned.
Service members must be wounded or killed in battle to receive the honor.But when a Springfield soldier received his Purple Heart six
months ago, he didn't even know it. He was in a medically-induced coma when the
award was pinned to his pillow.First Lieutenant Mark Wise never dreamed of receiving a
Purple Heart. He hoped he would come out of battle in Afghanistan without one
but now that he has he says he's grateful to wear this badge of honor...."
WATCH THE VIDEO of Advanced Arm Dynamics patient Lt. Mark
Wise featured on ABC 7 News in Washington, DC.
Advanced Arm Dynamics patients in Oregon
become part of a unique flying experience
Five Advanced Arm Dynamics patients participated
in a glider ride adventure last weekend in Hood
River, OR. Sponsored by the Oregon Active Foundation, the
participants each had the opportunity to ride with the glider pilot who
was towed to altitude and then released by the tow-plane for a 30 minute ride.
Some passengers chose to sail quietly, taking in the breathtaking views while
calmly floating through the air. The more daring of the bunch encouraged the
pilot to take twists and turns
before gliding gently back to earth. Riding a sailplane or glider is the
purest form of flying there is.
"I
flew like Superman," said Brendan Mandara (pictured left). "It was more fun than
I could ever imagine."
“
It was the best rollercoaster ride I have ever been on!” commented Lynn
Whitehead (at right).
The
Oregon Active Foundation is a non-profit organization that sponsors active adventures for disabled
individuals.
This is Ramon Padilla
(WRAMC active duty) Advanced Arm Dynamics' upper limb patient teeing off a ceremonial first
tee shot at the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods in Bethesda,
MD.
In the early morning hours of May 12, 2006, Thomas Hudspeth's
life changed forever. He had a massive head on collision that ended with
him breaking every bone in his body, except for his spine.
Due to his extensive injuries, he developed a bio-infection that resulted in
the amputation of his right arm below the elbow. It's been a grueling two
and a half years for Thomas - doctor's appointments, therapy three times a
week, over 40 surgeries, prosthetic fittings and.....worker's compensation
issues. "The insurance company controls what I do," said Thomas
"but, I am determined to regain the life I lost in that accident."
To add insult to injury, Thomas' prosthetic fittings, and the hundreds of miles
he traveled to get where the insurance company said he had to go, were all for
naught.
"Before I came to AAD, the arm the other company fit me with - I called it
a 'gorilla arm' it was too long, too heavy and too small - within 15 minutes of
wearing it, it turned my arm purple. The arm that Dan, Pat, Kristin and
BJ made for me - the way I describe it is, it's like putting on a good,
well-fitting, leather glove. I got it last Thursday and yesterday I wore
it for 6 hours. Yesterday, I wore a long sleeve shirt and the (wheelchair) bus
driver didn't realize I was wearing a prosthesis. It's really nice not to
get the stares."
The entire experience with ADVANCED ARM DYNAMICS was a complete
180 degrees from what the other vendor attempted to accomplish multiple
times.The people at AAD who provide
each solution are the best in their area of expertise in the industry.I felt that throughout the entire process.
Thomas has made amazing progress since the accident. He can don and doff
his prosthesis himself. Dress himself, button buttons, fasten his belt
and zip his zipper without any help from his wife. He's also back
coaching his son's baseball team and is looking forward to returning to work.
"I've always been top in sales. I'm very good at it and I miss
it."
As a thank you for everything they've done, Thomas and his wife had Dan, Pat,
BJ, Kristin, Frank and his family out to the house for dinner. "I
was raised to take care of the people who take care of you,." he said,
"It was my way of thanking them for hanging in there with me. It's
been a real battle, a long road and this has brought life back to within
reach. That's a good tagline you've got, because it's so true."
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