Courtesy Photo | (Photo courtesy Sgt. Russel Mendenhall) Staff Sgt. Qwane Hane and Sgt. Russel...... read more read more
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FALLS CHURCH, Va.- We’ve all done it. We get in a hurry, bump our heads on the door frame, getting in or out of the car, and think wow, that smarts, then we get on with our day. While deployed, Sgt Russel Mendenhall had a similar but much scarier situation in early July.
“I was deployed in Djibouti, and we were on patrol in Somalia, Africa. I hit my head in one of the Humvees. A few days later, I had a brain bleed and had a seizure. They rushed me into EMS, and I had what's called Todd Paralysis- I couldn’t feel anything,” said the twenty-four-year-old.
Todd Paralysis, named after the Irish physiologist and physician Robert Bentley Todd in 1849, is the exhaustion of the primary motor cortex after neuronal hyperexcitation in a seizure state, which can limit an area's function through relative oxygen starvation. “They believe it was an unprovoked seizure with Todd's Paralysis that caused the paralysis,” said Mendenhall.
A blood thinner was used on the Cannon Crew Member, and treatment at a hospital in Saudi Arabia was approved. “I spent a week or so there; I went there because they weren’t sure I would make it to the hospital in Germany.”
He eventually was sent to Landstuhl hospital in Germany. “When I got there, I could start moving my arm. That was progress because when it happened, I was coming in and out that first day and a half, and I don’t remember the injury. I learned everything I was saying from my battle buddy, who was with me every step of the way. I’ve heard him tell the story so many times- I’m so glad he was there.” Mendenhall said he was paralyzed for a few weeks.
The Utah National Guardsman says he was on a whirlwind tour to recover from the deployment to Saudi Arabia, Germany, and finally to Fort Carson, Colorado, to the Soldier Recovery Unit.
“I had no clue what an SRU was. I’m someone who never would have looked into this. I have found some of the best people I've ever met in the military at the SRU. Staff Sgt. Qwane Hanes is the epitome of what an NCO should be and what right looks like. She has bent over backward to help me. I know she does way more than she is supposed to.”
Mendenhall shared that nobody plans on getting medivacked and never thinks something like that would happen to them, nor would anyone need an SRU or the services and people available to help. He thanks his lucky stars he also encountered a Recovery Care Coordinator named Kenneth Tate. “Mr. Tate is awesome. He found out about some resources nobody knew about and was there for me every step of the way. He truly went out of his way for me,” said Mendenhall, who had zero personal effects with him and only three extra t-shirts his battle buddy grabbed before leaving Djibouti.
“Fort Carson was a huge sigh of relief. They had a plan for my recovery; x, y, and z were all planned for me. They had me meet with a case manager and a nurse practitioner. They had a plan and wanted to help me, and I felt they truly cared about me, and it wasn’t just a job to them.”
For a great program to work, each Soldier must fully participate. The staff and cadre, including Kenneth Tate, saw firsthand how Mendenhall embraced the opportunities at the SRU, from education to adaptive reconditioning events. “He is what we call the Tip of the Spear—that dude is sharp, and I am there for anything he needs! He’s focused, and he will get better,” said Tate.
Mendenhall is recovering nicely. His goal is to return to duty, and he is working toward that with the help of the SRU. “Their goal is to help my goal become a reality,” said the full-time nursing student in Utah when he’s not on Army orders.
He likes the National Guard opportunities and sees himself having two very different careers. “I kind of like having a separate civilian and military life, where five days a week I do my nursing stuff and then on the weekends in the military, out in the field blowing stuff up! It’s cool, Army guy stuff.”
Making sure Soldiers know about and embrace the SRU is important to Mendenhall, who takes that on as part of his responsibility. “Put yourself first. Stop thinking you abandoned your guys. To be there for them; you must be 100%, so buy into the program and trust the people at the SRU. In the long run, you will be better off, I promise.”’
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2024 13:52 |
| Story ID: | 479238 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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