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Posted by: kwflatbed

Marine keeps his head high on tough road to recovery

By BRIAN FRAGA, Standard-Times staff writer





Photos by PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times Toben Medeiros, 21 tries to come to grips with his injuries as he adapts to a little bit of life at home before heading back to Bethesda, Md., for more treatment. Toben is a marine from Dartmouth, MA that was wounded during a tour of duty in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded while his squad attempted to flee a building that was under enemy fire. His best friend was killed instantly.


Marine Lance Cpl. Toben Medeiros could not stop rubbing the right side of his head, trying to scratch an itch he could not relieve.
"I got shrapnel all inside me," said Cpl. Medeiros, pointing to a bump near his right eye.
"Think of it when you touch a socket with your fork and that's what it feels like," Cpl. Medeiros said of the sharp spasms continuously afflicting him. He constantly rubbed his right eyebrow, trying to deal with the pain.
Cpl. Medeiros' girlfriend, Kaleigh Fisher, sat in a nearby chair in the living room of his Dartmouth home. Ms. Fisher said her boyfriend's ongoing recovery from combat wounds in Iraq often leaves him frustrated.
"Toben just can't sit around," she said. "He's got to be doing things. Resting in the house is not really working for him. He's really fidgety."
Despite the often painful and maddening recovery process, Cpl. Medeiros said he was in good spirits.
"I'm pretty motivated," he said. "Nothing really stops me from doing what I want."
Cpl. Medeiros, who turned 22 last month, recently was home in Dartmouth on a six-week convalescent leave, continuing his recovery from the serious wounds he suffered in a June 22 insurgent ambush in Iraq's volatile Sunni Triangle.
He was injured when an improvised explosive device exploded near him and two other Marines. The blast tore through the right side of his body, claiming his right eye and 85 percent of his eardrum. Chunks of his arm and leg were shredded off, requiring skin grafts from his stomach and thighs. His broken right leg has exposed nerves and tissue underneath the knee.
Cpl. Medeiros can walk, but only with the assistance of an eight-pound metallic brace. During his recent leave in Dartmouth, he was on a regimen of 16 pills a day, consisting mostly of mostly vitamins and blood thinners. He also took an anti-depressant.
Accompanied by his 20-year-old girlfriend, he shared the difficulties of living and sleeping with the leg brace that makes bathing a production and sleeping awkward.
"It feels like eight pounds of dead weight dragging everywhere I go," said Cpl. Medeiros, wearing blue gym shorts, a white long-sleeved T-shirt and still sporting a military-style haircut.
"I just can't wait to get this thing off," he said, then scratched his head again.
The fact that he was experiencing discomfort in his head means his brain is regaining sensation 41/2 months after he was injured.
His right eye has been replaced by an acrylic prosthetic that he takes out periodically to clean.
His right arm and hand also still have the stitch marks from the skin grafts taken from his stomach, groin and thighs. The ligaments underneath the grafted skin have not yet stretched and settled, giving the skin on top a loose and bubbly appearance.
"It's like my stomach is growing on my hand," he said.
Cpl. Medeiros spent more than three months in military hospitals in Bethesda, Md., and Tampa, Fla., undergoing surgeries and grueling physical therapy.
Returning home in mid-September, he continued his therapy at the Faunce Corner Wellness Association in Dartmouth three times a week for two hours a day.
There are exercises where he stands on his right leg, bending down and picking up cones. The therapy has enabled him to regain partial use of his right hand.
"They got me making a fist again," he said, proudly showing off his new skill. "It's got me all happy."
He still eats left-handed, however.
Cpl. Medeiros returned to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda on Nov. 12 for surgery on his right hand. He said doctors were going to use a piece of bone from his hip to craft a new right pinkie finger.
The surgery — in which he also had his eardrum repaired — means he won't be home for Thanksgiving, his favorite holiday.
"I like it because of all the food," he said. "Last year, I ate five times."
Cpl. Medeiros was home last Thanksgiving, after already having spent seven months in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. His scout and sniper platoon redeployed to Iraq in March.
On June 22, the platoon's roughly two dozen members were atop a building in Ramadi when insurgents fired at them.
After calling for reinforcements, Cpl. Medeiros's six-man sniper team left the building to board the arriving trucks.
Cpl. Medeiros, his best friend Cpl. Riley Baker, 22, of Missouri and Richard Levine, a Marine medic, were on foot when the IED exploded right next to them.
The explosion killed Cpl. Riley instantly.
When the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines returned home on Oct. 2, Cpl. Medeiros and his family traveled to Camp Lejeune. He had dinner with Cpl. Riley's family and attended a memorial service for the unit's 17 Marines killed in Iraq.
Despite the carnage and the seemingly endless cycle of violence, Cpl. Medeiros opposes an immediate withdrawal of troops.
Although describing the situation as "a complete mess," he said: "If we pull out now, then basically I got hurt for nothing, my friend died for nothing. I don't want to believe that."
Ms. Fisher, who is keeping a scrapbook of what she called Cpl. Medeiros' nearly miraculous recovery, recalled the first time she saw him after the explosion, lying in a hospital bed connected to a series of life-saving tubes.
"You forget there's a war going on, and then it hits you," she said.
"We take so much for granted. I think everything's that happened has made him grow up a little more. It's made me grow up a lot more. He has a lot of patience now."
Cpl. Medeiros said he is thankful for the outpouring of support shown by the community. Dartmouth High School, his alma mater, threw him a party in the school's library and gave him a lifetime pass to sporting events. A local automotive company offered him free oil changes for life.
Cpl. Medeiros surprised many a well-wisher by returning their telephone calls or visiting them at home.
Cpl. Medeiros is looking to the day when he can shed his halo leg brace and wear his fatigues again. His enlistment ends on Aug. 11, 2007, and he has not given up his dream of becoming a Massachusetts environmental police officer.
In the meanwhile, he relished an opportunity to hold a baby niece and play with a young nephew. He stretched out on his living room couch. For the moment, he was relaxed and pain-free.
"I just sit here with my arm over my head, the sun on my face, watching TV," he said.



Contact Brian Fraga at bfraga@s-t.com

There are many photos + click on the link below.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/multi...shows/medeiros

[Marine Lance Cpl. Toben Medeiros talks about his experiences. View an audio/visual slide show featuring additional photos.]

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Posted by: Mongo

Stay Motivated Hard Charger.

Semper Fi OOOOOOHHHHHRAHHHHHH!!!!

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

for once I cant find the words brother. God bless you.

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Posted by: mikey742

I haven't the words this Marine deserves.

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Posted by: USMCMP5811

Stay Strong Devil Dog...OhhhhRah!

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Posted by: Sniper

Hoorah.........

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