After severe war injuries, a new battlefield

Troops with severe war injuries such as multiple limb loss face a long and difficult rehabilitation. Naval Medical Center San Diego is where some learn a new way of life

U.S. Marine Juan Dominguez lies still while Peter Harsch, chief of prosthetics at Naval Medical Center San Diego, wraps a plaster mold on his leg stump. The mold will be used to make an artifical leg. Dominguez lost both legs and an arm in Afghanistan seven months ago, making him one of a growing number of American troops suffering catastrophic injuries such as multiple limb loss. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / May 9, 2011)

May 9, 2011 - Dominguez's mother, Martha, lives in an adjoining room in the battalion housing and accompanies her son to his appointments. Several other mothers live in rooms beside their wounded sons.

Navy and Marine Corps brass have agreed that wounded Navy corpsmen should live on the same floor as the wounded Marines. Both groups recover more quickly when they are near personnel who share their battlefield experiences, officials said.

Fuke and Dominguez, for example, are part of the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, which was assigned to the Taliban stronghold in Sangin. "He's one of my boys," said Dominguez, adding that he has finally forgiven Fuke for not giving him morphine as he lay in the dirt writhing in pain.

From the beginning of the assault on Baghdad in 2003, the San Diego hospital has treated patients with traumatic amputations. But last year, particularly as the battalion fought the Taliban in late fall, the numbers surged to unprecedented levels.

In 2010, the San Diego hospital received 31 patients who had undergone amputations, a three-fold increase over 2009. In the first four months of 2011, 18 more patients with amputations were transferred to San Diego.

In 2009, only one of the 10 amputees had lost more than one limb. In 2010, the figure was 10 of 31. So far in 2011, the figure is 11 of 18. {continued}