thedrifter
05-08-06, 01:25 PM
Marine injured as he returns
By Mary Madewell
The Paris News
Published May 08, 2006
The last time Jamie Woodard of Paris heard her son’s voice on March 31, he was standing in front of a military commissary in California.
“Mom, I’m standing in front of the PX, I’m dressed in civilian clothes and I am so happy.” Lance Cpl. Ben Hardgrove, 20, said.
Woodard said she told her son to be careful, and he said, “I love you Mom.”
Twelve hours later he was struck by a car in front of a motel in Yucca Valley, Calif., 12 hours after returning from a second tour of duty in Iraq.
The next time she heard his voice was Thursday at the Texas Neuro Rehab Center in Austin.
“He is no longer in a coma, and he has said a few words to me,” the mother of six said Saturday. “He is responding to small things and is taking commands.”
The Paris High School graduate is now undergoing rehabilitation at the Texas Neuro Rehab Center, where his mother hopes for the best. Doctors in California told Woodard her son would remain in a vegetative state after suffering severe head injuries.
Doctors have not told Woodard what her son’s chances of recovery are, but she said her son’s determination and help from God can work wonders.
“It was so great to hear his voice,” Woodard said of her son’s first faint but unclear words to her.
After a night out on the town with friends in California prior to going to Las Vegas for a fellow Marine’s wedding, the group was at a motel in Yucca Valley near 29 Palms Marine Base.
Hardgrove, who was on foot, was struck by a car in front of the motel in which the group was staying, his mother said.
He was taken first to Yucca Valley Hospital and then to Desert Regional Medical Trauma Center, where it was determined he had a skull fracture, eight broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a badly shattered pelvis and a damaged left eye.
Members of Soldiers’ Angels were quick to respond to Hardgrove and his family. The group is dedicated to serving United States soldiers wherever they may be. It has members worldwide, including several in Paris.
“These people were so good,” the Marine’s grandmother Ginny Carter said. “They visited with him in California and read him papers.”
Soldiers’ Angel Ashley McGuire-Agee, a personal fitness trainer who visited Hardgrove regularly in California, writes about her relationship with the Paris family in an appeal to others at the group’s Web site at www.soldiersangels.org.
The “Who What Where When Why Ben” link carries the reader to calltothenation.com.
“I have become extremely close to Ben and his family in a very short period of time,” she wrote. “I talk to Ben’s mother daily. She had to return home to care of her five other children.”
“They are grass roots people,” Agee wrote. “The people America was built on.
Hardgrove’s great grandparents came to Paris in 1916 from Arkansas as construction workers after the great fire and then made Paris their home, his grandmother said.
The Web site lists a fund established for the Marine and his family at First Federal Community Bank, 630 Clarksville St. Paris, Texas 75460.
A little more than a month after the accident Hardgrove returned to Texas due to the efforts of staff members serving U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall.
His grandmother expressed appreciation to staff member Martha Glover in Hall’s office and to Vicki Field with the U.S. Naval Reserve Center in Fort Worth.
“We were having trouble getting the insurance company to let us move him to a rehab in Texas,” Carter said. The grandmother said Field had made several calls, one to the commandant of the Marines and one to the admiral of the Navy.
“It took one call to Congressman Hall’s office, and within an hour or so he was on a plane to Texas,” Carter said. His mother went to Austin on Tuesday to be with her son, but returned to Paris on Sunday to take care of business at home.
Martha Glover, who manages Hall’s district office in Sulphur Springs, took the call for help.
“Every once in awhile things just fall in place,” Glover said about the quick response from insurance carrier Tri-Care West after she talked with a representative. “It was a matter of getting the right people together.”
With her son now in Texas, Woodard said the distance between them is not so great.
“I will be traveling back and forth to Austin,” the mother said. “I need to be there for my son and at home for my other children.”
Ellie
By Mary Madewell
The Paris News
Published May 08, 2006
The last time Jamie Woodard of Paris heard her son’s voice on March 31, he was standing in front of a military commissary in California.
“Mom, I’m standing in front of the PX, I’m dressed in civilian clothes and I am so happy.” Lance Cpl. Ben Hardgrove, 20, said.
Woodard said she told her son to be careful, and he said, “I love you Mom.”
Twelve hours later he was struck by a car in front of a motel in Yucca Valley, Calif., 12 hours after returning from a second tour of duty in Iraq.
The next time she heard his voice was Thursday at the Texas Neuro Rehab Center in Austin.
“He is no longer in a coma, and he has said a few words to me,” the mother of six said Saturday. “He is responding to small things and is taking commands.”
The Paris High School graduate is now undergoing rehabilitation at the Texas Neuro Rehab Center, where his mother hopes for the best. Doctors in California told Woodard her son would remain in a vegetative state after suffering severe head injuries.
Doctors have not told Woodard what her son’s chances of recovery are, but she said her son’s determination and help from God can work wonders.
“It was so great to hear his voice,” Woodard said of her son’s first faint but unclear words to her.
After a night out on the town with friends in California prior to going to Las Vegas for a fellow Marine’s wedding, the group was at a motel in Yucca Valley near 29 Palms Marine Base.
Hardgrove, who was on foot, was struck by a car in front of the motel in which the group was staying, his mother said.
He was taken first to Yucca Valley Hospital and then to Desert Regional Medical Trauma Center, where it was determined he had a skull fracture, eight broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a badly shattered pelvis and a damaged left eye.
Members of Soldiers’ Angels were quick to respond to Hardgrove and his family. The group is dedicated to serving United States soldiers wherever they may be. It has members worldwide, including several in Paris.
“These people were so good,” the Marine’s grandmother Ginny Carter said. “They visited with him in California and read him papers.”
Soldiers’ Angel Ashley McGuire-Agee, a personal fitness trainer who visited Hardgrove regularly in California, writes about her relationship with the Paris family in an appeal to others at the group’s Web site at www.soldiersangels.org.
The “Who What Where When Why Ben” link carries the reader to calltothenation.com.
“I have become extremely close to Ben and his family in a very short period of time,” she wrote. “I talk to Ben’s mother daily. She had to return home to care of her five other children.”
“They are grass roots people,” Agee wrote. “The people America was built on.
Hardgrove’s great grandparents came to Paris in 1916 from Arkansas as construction workers after the great fire and then made Paris their home, his grandmother said.
The Web site lists a fund established for the Marine and his family at First Federal Community Bank, 630 Clarksville St. Paris, Texas 75460.
A little more than a month after the accident Hardgrove returned to Texas due to the efforts of staff members serving U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall.
His grandmother expressed appreciation to staff member Martha Glover in Hall’s office and to Vicki Field with the U.S. Naval Reserve Center in Fort Worth.
“We were having trouble getting the insurance company to let us move him to a rehab in Texas,” Carter said. The grandmother said Field had made several calls, one to the commandant of the Marines and one to the admiral of the Navy.
“It took one call to Congressman Hall’s office, and within an hour or so he was on a plane to Texas,” Carter said. His mother went to Austin on Tuesday to be with her son, but returned to Paris on Sunday to take care of business at home.
Martha Glover, who manages Hall’s district office in Sulphur Springs, took the call for help.
“Every once in awhile things just fall in place,” Glover said about the quick response from insurance carrier Tri-Care West after she talked with a representative. “It was a matter of getting the right people together.”
With her son now in Texas, Woodard said the distance between them is not so great.
“I will be traveling back and forth to Austin,” the mother said. “I need to be there for my son and at home for my other children.”
Ellie