November 22, 2011 - Sgt. Ed Matayka: I woke up six weeks later. That's what I remember.
Matayka can't recall the roadside bomb that hit his military vehicle on a road just outside of Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The blast killed the driver, Specialist Ryan Grady of West Burke, and wounded four Vermont soldiers, Matayka most critically.
"I have fleeting dreams and glimpses of what was going on around me in ICU, but typically no. I don't want to know. I don't want to remember. So, that's OK with me," he said.
But he does remember the ongoing battle to try to recover from his war wounds.
"Life isn't going to be like it was, but it will get back to somewhere near it," he said.
Matayka's life forever changed in a moment. The sergeant lost both of his legs in the blast, suffered spinal fractures, brain damage and then had two strokes.
"When they told me about Ed's injuries, I was completely devastated. I remember collapsing on the floor into a heap of horrible emotions, just wailing as loud as I could in the hospital," said Matayka's wife, Karen.
Karen Matayka is also in the Vermont Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan, too. She rushed to see Ed at the hospital on base shortly after the explosion. Doctors didn't think he'd survive.
"I held his hand and whispered in his ear, not now," she recalled.
And Ed apparently listened. He's made significant progress in the last year and five months. Karen's been right by his side.
Karen Matayka: Basically give him the good old Army, suck it up and drive on! Ha! read more>>>
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