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Madigan plays key role for injured soldiers

May-22-2004 » Filed Under: General Military

[Link to Full Article]
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Sgt. 1st Class Eric Ford's injury - shrapnel wounds to his left forearm - doesn't sound so bad in the context of all the traumatic things that are happening to U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Not bad, that is, until one gets a close look at the two wicked scars that run from his elbow to his wrist. Or until one sees the powerfully built platoon sergeant struggle in therapy to pinch open a clothespin with his left hand.

The soldier from the 864th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis nearly lost his arm when a bulldozer set off a land mine about 10 feet from him on Oct. 25 at Al Taji Airfield in Iraq.

Slowly but surely, he is regaining strength and looking forward to promotion and his next assignment.

Ford is like a lot of the war wounded and injured who come through Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis. The worst cases generally go elsewhere - amputees to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., burn patients to the Army Burn Center in San Antonio, Texas.

But Madigan is still a busy Army hospital in wartime.


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