My Fallen Soldier

I know I havent really given a good update on here about what has been going on so I will try to do so briefly. Ronnie was only back in Afghanistan for about 2 weeks, and only back at his home base for less than 2 days, when the incident happened. He hadnt called in a couple days and I sensed something was wrong, but I couldnt bring myself to look at the casualty report that gets sent to his email after battles. I left my first class of the morning on Tuesday , October 26 to find that I had several texts from his family and a voicemail. I knew it wasnt good.

Ronnie was wounded in a "combat operation" possibly just outside the FOB walls. He sustained burns over 51% of his body. He was later re-evaluated and current estimates are at about 40%. Most of the burns are concentrated on his right side and on his legs and torso, but his right hand has sustained massive injury.

Within a day he was flown to a military hospital in Germany and his family was able to meet up with him there.

So far he has remained sedated with both a ventilator and feeding tube. The following is an update from his mom this morning...

Ronnie arrived in San Antonio Brook Army Medical Center BAMC around midnight last night. He did well on the flight, but has developed pneumonia in his right lung. The Dr. said this was normal and are treating him. He also has a blood clot in his le...ft leg developed that while in Germany. Ronnie will undergo his first major surgery in about 4 hours (around 8:00am)
They will do his first major debreeding and grafting. The Dr. estimates about 3-4 surgeries. The Dr. estimates 40% burn area needing grafting.
If anyone is interested in visiting Ronnie...Please call Ron or me to schedule the best time for Ronnie. We don't want to over stimulate him and give him more than he can process. They estimate that for every 1% of the burn= 1-2 days in ICU, but they said because of his age they think it should only be 1 day per 1%. I will give an update after surgery!

Needless to say it has been a long hard road this past week. I will try to do a little better about putting little snippets up here as I get them.

For now, I plan to travel to San Antonio, TX next Friday morning and stay through Wednesday.

Please be praying for my sweet soldier.