We take it a day at a time
Feb 27th 2007RavenIraq & Life & Marine Corps & Raven & War
Here’s a Marine who could use some prayers. As could his family…
MARION TOWNSHIP — A U.S. Marine from Bellefonte who was seriously wounded in Iraq is “still fighting” for life at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where his family and fellow Marines are keeping vigil, his father said.
Marine Cpl. David Emery Jr.’s, legs and left arm were shattered on Feb. 7 in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq’s Anbar province. Emery, 21, nicknamed “D.J.,” also suffered a severe abdominal wound, including a severed artery that caused his kidneys to shut down, his family said. He is on a ventilator and is also suffering from pneumonia.
“I still can’t believe it’s happening,” said his father, David Emery, who made a one-day trip back to his Marion Township home before returning today to Bethesda. “I keep thinking it’s a bad dream I’m going to wake up from. But I keep having it.”
The younger Emery’s wife, Leslie, who is seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child, remains at her husband’s bedside along with the Marine’s mother, Connie.
David is in a coma. Every breath he takes right now is a blessing. He is in a very acute, intensive care situation. There is no way to predict how this will pan out.
“Right now he’s maintaining his own blood pressure,” David Emery. “They took him off the medication for that. So that’s a positive sign. He’s still on a ventilator, and they’re still doing dialysis every day. And every day they are cleaning his wounds.
“They haven’t even started working on his fractures yet,” the elder Emery said. “We take it a day at a time. Every day he holds on, there’s some improvement. It means he’s not getting worse.”
David Emery Jr. has not regained consciousness since he was wounded in the bombing. But his loved ones think the Marine is aware of his family, friends and a long line of Marines who have visited him, the father said.
“I took his hand and said, ‘If you can hear me, squeeze my hand,’ ” David Emery said. “And he squeezed my hand. Boy was that a good feeling.”
He can hear his father. And everyone else. I hope they are taking care of the pain he feels too. Often they keep severely wounded people in medically induced comas just so they can start the process of healing without the pain.
While staying in Bethesda near his son — the family is being housed by the Marine Corps — David Emery attended a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for the Marine he thinks saved his son’s life.
David Emery said his son’s sergeant major, Joseph J. Ellis, of Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, appeared to have realized that a man pushing into a crowd near Ellis and David Emery Jr. was an insurgent. Emery said he was told by Marine Corps officials that Ellis got between the suicide bomber and his son. Ellis was killed by the bomb.
“I think of him as a hero,” David Emery said of Ellis, a 40-year-old Marine from Ashland, Ohio. “He saw him pushing his way through the crowd. He moved to get this guy and probably saved my son’s life.”
It’s sad when a hero dies in the act of saving others. But it happens daily in Iraq. For those left living, the pain and sorrow of being ALIVE is forever with them. The guilt, that feeling that they somehow should have been killed, is always there. David needs prayers, lots of them.
Semper Fi young Marine…
Teach has a story about the good work of some American soldiers…how they saved a baby’s life…at Pirate Cove’s Tuesday Trackback party.
No Comments »
