Neb. vet still recovering from Iraq wounds

[unhappycamper]

Neb. vet still recovering from Iraq wounds
By Art Hovey - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 30, 2008 15:15:26 EST

FREMONT, Neb. — Ben Marksmeier lost his right leg below the knee in 2006.

More than two years later, the Fremont man still is struggling with the physical effects of all the metal embedded in his body.

Follow-up surgery to remove shrapnel above his knee swelled his stump so much he was unable to wear the artificial part of his leg for weeks this fall.

That meant that when 2-year-old Caiden spilled his juice on the rug, his 22-year-old father had to hop to the rescue. With wife Heather away at work, the thin young man who once pole vaulted more than 12 feet in high school finally reached the sink on his good leg to grab a wad of paper towels.

“I don’t think you ever fully recover,” he said. “Physically, obviously, I can’t. Emotionally, I have my days.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_FightingtoRecover_113008/%2e