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| Bullet doesn't stop Arizona soldier |
| 2006-05-29 |
| Army Spc. Michael Hilliard would like to get back to his unit in Iraq. But he can't right now, because in April a bullet tore through his helmet and rattled his brain. So before he can return to a life in Baghdad of searching houses, arresting insurgents and shooting at the enemy, he first needs to arrange the picture cards laid before him to show the proper sequence for making spaghetti. "This is hard. It's frustrating," he said. "I know they are doing what they need to do but I just want to get back with my guys." On April 7, Hilliard, 21, was walking through a farm field with his unit when he says three men started firing at them from a car. "Next thing I know, I fell to the ground," Hilliard said during a therapy session at the Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix. "My buddies said I yelled for a medic and went down." When he regained consciousness, a medic was holding a bandage to his head. Hilliard was then flown by helicopter to an Army hospital in north Baghdad. "I called my mom from the ER. I asked her how her day was. She said, 'It's the middle of the night, I'm sleeping.' I told her I got shot in the head and she told me to stop joking. She said that wasn't funny." His mother was right. Hilliard thought he was fine, but his injuries were serious. The bullet crashed into his head just above the left temple and fractured his skull. Hilliard's speech, memory and attention span had stopped working right when the bullet slammed into his head. After initial treatment in Washington he was sent to Phoenix where he could receive speech, language and cognitive therapy at the VA Medical Center and stay with his family. For three weeks, he worked with speech pathologists Angela Garcia and Karen Pearson. The work was tedious but important. Hilliard was injured in a part of the brain responsible for things like planning, communicating, and making judgments. Hilliard was lucky; he just needed to start exercising those parts of his brain again. Although Hilliard resisted the therapy at the beginning, he did begin to realize he needed help. "I was forgetting things. I would say the same thing over and over and not realize it," he said. "It wasn't drastic, but it was definitely real." He also realized that if he wanted to get back to being a soldier, he had to make his head right. The work was more tedious than difficult. He would perform simple tasks that tested his memory and organizational skills: playing word games, arranging picture cards, memory tests. Garcia began to make the tests more difficult, and then she started to distract him while he performed his tasks. Steadily, all of his cognitive functions began to return. While the ability to make quick judgments, remember things and communicate is obviously important for everybody, they can be a matter of life and death in battle. That's why Hilliard has been dogged in his work, even when it felt silly. This week, Hilliard is back at Walter Reed where he is receiving comprehensive tests so he can be certified to be physically and mentally fit to return to active duty. If that happens, he will go to a base in Kentucky and rejoin his unit, which will rotate out of Iraq and back to the United States in the fall. Hilliard re-enlisted since his injury and wants to make a career in the service. On Friday, he received his Purple Heart and his sole focus now is to return to battle and prove, to others and himself, that he is well enough to serve again with his unit. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #4 Very impressive. Thinking is, indeed, the hardest thing to do well. (Sometimes I wish I could!) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-29 13:25 |
| #3 What a great guy. Take care, soldier, and thank you. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-05-29 12:17 |
| #2 Amen, Lone Ranger. They still do make 'em like they used to. |
| Posted by: Snique Uleretch3016 2006-05-29 09:44 |
| #1 My utmost respects and sincerest gratitude to this dedicated soldier. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2006-05-29 02:13 |