“It finally hit me. It is what it is. Let’s get on with it.”
With those last five words, Navy field hospital corpsman Derek McGinnis began a new life of acceptance. In the months prior, he had battled great physical pain, traumatic brain injury, doctors who thought his pain was imaginary and the emotional upheavals of post-traumatic stress.
Somehow, a switch flipped.
"I had been consumed by my brokenness and my issues, and somewhere I transferred to gratefulness," says the 32-year-old. It was at that point that I truly embraced the strategies to cope. That acceptance relieved a lot of the anxiety and frustration.”
In November 2004, McGinnis was serving in Iraq with the Marines 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion as the invasion of Fallujah began. He and another corpsman were speeding in an ambulance to treat several injured troops when a suicide driver in a car loaded with explosives hit them. The explosion severed McGinnis’ left leg above the knee, caused traumatic brain injury and left shrapnel in his eye. McGinnis says his life was saved by his fellow corpsman, also injured, who applied a tourniquet.
His treatment was complicated. The brain injury required much therapy, and he had to push physicians for additional tests and procedures to reduce the pain from his amputation that he knew was all too real. A third surgery finally relieved the pain, and McGinnis was able to embark on what he had adopted as his new military mission — recovery.
The corpsman medically retired from the Navy in 2007, but he continues to serve the men and women he calls "my Marines." He is the Amputee Advocate for the American Pain Foundation and is the co-author of Exit Wounds, A Survival Guide to Pain Management for Returning Veterans and Their Families, which is published by the organization. He will soon complete his master’s degree in social work, and he works part-time with the Modesto Vet Center in northern California, where he counsels vets who have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma and grief.
And he runs and runs and runs. A high school athlete in track, McGinnis knew that exercise would be a critical component of his recovery. While under treatment for his injuries at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, he was visited by representatives of the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund. The men and women challenged him to run with them in a marathon.
"This put a goal in my head," says McGinnis. "There was no way I was going to let those Marines down. Running would be a way for me to tell them I care." McGinnis says one of the most difficult aspects of his recovery was the reaction of others to his injuries. "A lot of people looked at me as disabled, and some doctors would tell me, 'You're not going to be able to do this; you're not going to be able to do that.' 'Disabled' became a label that I just wouldn’t accept."
McGinnis completed the Marine Corps Marathon 10K in 2006, and he continues to participate with Team Semper Fi in longer and more challenging runs. With a different prosthetic for each sport, he also bikes, swims, surfs and plays soccer. "I stay busy and I know there is euphoria in accomplishments."
McGinnis says he is a blessed man. He praises his wife, Andrea, who was pregnant with their first child, a son, when he was injured, and his parents for providing great emotional support through his ordeal.
"In those early days in the hospital, the staff would play me recordings of my son’s heartbeat," McGinnis says. "I really believe that kept me going. After he was born, my son became my inspiration. I knew I had to get my stuff squared away so I could be a father to him like my dad was to me."
The birth in 2005 of the son McGinnis calls "Super" Sean was followed by the arrival of "Radical" Ryan in 2006. A third son, Kyle, nickname to be determined, is due this summer.
(First published in 2010)
When Mommy Deploys