thedrifter
07-08-07, 08:46 AM
Marine from Collier injured in Iraq is recovering in Texas hospital
By Tracy X. Miguel
Saturday, July 7, 2007
A 20-year-old Collier County native, injured while on duty in Iraq as a Marine, is recovering from war wounds in the Brooke Army Medical Center near San Antonio, Texas.
Pfc. Scott Norris, who was wounded while stationed in Fallujah, Iraq, is alert, smiling and laughing.
“His attitude is very good,” his mother, Carol Hallenbeck, said in a phone interview, moments before walking into her son’s hospital room late this week.
“He’s happy to be alive.”
Norris, who was serving his first tour as a Marine combat engineer in the 2nd Marine Division unit No. 73610, was injured when he was on foot with other Marines detonating a roadside bomb, known as improvised explosive devices, IEDs, when one went off nearby, Norris told his mother.
He was wounded by shrapnel in both legs and received multiple fractures in his right hand, Hallenbeck said.
The Marine division of public affairs office doesn’t account for the number of IED combat deaths or wounds, Marines spokeswoman 1st Lt. Blanca Binstock said.
Norris’ left leg has healed well, Hallenbeck said, while his right leg is being treated with a “wound vac,” a tube-and-pump device that creates a vacuum over an open wound.
For the past two weeks, Hallenbeck has spent 12 hours a day by her son’s bedside helping him heal, from talking and reading to him to opening his juice, since his right arm is in a cast.
Hallenbeck, of East Naples, said the hardest part is when her son wakes up and he’s not sure where he is at, adding that it may be caused by the medication.
“We are just going through the process of getting him better,” said Hallenbeck, 43.
Hallenbeck said her son gets frustrated because he is having difficulty hearing, but he remains strong and mostly happy.
During his first week at the hospital, Norris underwent surgery every day.
Norris joined the Marines in 2005 after graduating from Palmetto Ridge High School in Golden Gate Estates.
Hallenbeck said it is too soon to know whether Norris won’t have to return to Iraq.
She said Norris hasn’t spoken about war.
Norris isn’t ready to speak publicly, Hallenbeck said.
It is still unknown when he will be released from the hospital.
Around June 18, Norris was flown out of Iraq to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where he was in intensive care and then flown to Brooke Army Medical Center near San Antonio, Texas, the same week.
Hallenbeck and her boyfriend, Brent King, were flown to the hospital to be there for Norris’s arrival.
“He has a lot of work to do to get better,” she said.
Ellie
By Tracy X. Miguel
Saturday, July 7, 2007
A 20-year-old Collier County native, injured while on duty in Iraq as a Marine, is recovering from war wounds in the Brooke Army Medical Center near San Antonio, Texas.
Pfc. Scott Norris, who was wounded while stationed in Fallujah, Iraq, is alert, smiling and laughing.
“His attitude is very good,” his mother, Carol Hallenbeck, said in a phone interview, moments before walking into her son’s hospital room late this week.
“He’s happy to be alive.”
Norris, who was serving his first tour as a Marine combat engineer in the 2nd Marine Division unit No. 73610, was injured when he was on foot with other Marines detonating a roadside bomb, known as improvised explosive devices, IEDs, when one went off nearby, Norris told his mother.
He was wounded by shrapnel in both legs and received multiple fractures in his right hand, Hallenbeck said.
The Marine division of public affairs office doesn’t account for the number of IED combat deaths or wounds, Marines spokeswoman 1st Lt. Blanca Binstock said.
Norris’ left leg has healed well, Hallenbeck said, while his right leg is being treated with a “wound vac,” a tube-and-pump device that creates a vacuum over an open wound.
For the past two weeks, Hallenbeck has spent 12 hours a day by her son’s bedside helping him heal, from talking and reading to him to opening his juice, since his right arm is in a cast.
Hallenbeck, of East Naples, said the hardest part is when her son wakes up and he’s not sure where he is at, adding that it may be caused by the medication.
“We are just going through the process of getting him better,” said Hallenbeck, 43.
Hallenbeck said her son gets frustrated because he is having difficulty hearing, but he remains strong and mostly happy.
During his first week at the hospital, Norris underwent surgery every day.
Norris joined the Marines in 2005 after graduating from Palmetto Ridge High School in Golden Gate Estates.
Hallenbeck said it is too soon to know whether Norris won’t have to return to Iraq.
She said Norris hasn’t spoken about war.
Norris isn’t ready to speak publicly, Hallenbeck said.
It is still unknown when he will be released from the hospital.
Around June 18, Norris was flown out of Iraq to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where he was in intensive care and then flown to Brooke Army Medical Center near San Antonio, Texas, the same week.
Hallenbeck and her boyfriend, Brent King, were flown to the hospital to be there for Norris’s arrival.
“He has a lot of work to do to get better,” she said.
Ellie