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| Courtesy
Photo |
On
Nov 29, 2005, nine months after being deployed to Iraq,
Lt. Ryan Kules (pictured here in a helicopter) was injured
outside of Baghdad. In order to save his life, it was
necessary to amputate his right arm and left leg, and
remove his spleen. He is currently an outpatient in
the Fisher House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C.
(Click
picture to see larger image) |
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| Courtesy
Photo |
Outside Baghdad, Iraq, Lt. Ryan Kules
patrols in one of the four Abrams tanks he commanded
before he was critically injured on Nov. 29, 2005, and
brought back to the United States to recover. Kules,
who was born in Phoenix and grew up in Scottsdale, became
a tank commander on April 1, 2004 after training at
Fort Knox, Ky.
(Click
picture to see larger image)
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The
long journey home: A soldier's story
Regaining Lieutenant Ryan
This is part one of a two part story that will conclude next
week in The Desert Advocate.|by
Chris Moore
On November 29, 2005, at approximately 10:15 a.m. (Baghdad,
Iraq time), U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Ryan C. Kules' life changed
forever-in an instant.
Leading a combat patrol of three vehicles down a farm road
north of Baghdad, Lt. Kules' up armored humvee was hit by
an insurgent's improvised explosive device (IED) and he was
thrown from the vehicle into a irrigation ditch. Two members
of his platoon were killed instantly. Ryan's injuries would
result in his left leg and right arm being amputated.
Ryan's story from that point on is one of extraordinary courage
and perseverance, not only on his part but also all those
who helped save Ryan's life and his family and friends who
have supported him and been by his side on the long road of
recovery.
"Without the actions of the men in my platoon and the
service members that were first to respond to my injuries,"
Ryan recently told The Desert Advocate in an e mail from Fisher
House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,
where he is an outpatient, "I would not be (alive) today.
They were the first to help me in this situation, but not
the last. My wife, family, friends, strangers, doctors and
therapists have all played vital roles in my recovery. I feel
pretty lucky. Lucky, and blessed."
Saving Ryan happened very quickly. According to his commanding
officer, Lt. Col. Eric J. Wesley, "Within approximately
15 minutes of finding Ryan, a medevac pilot was able to narrowly
slip his aircraft onto the ground, and within five minutes
from that point he was en route to a military hospital in
Baghdad," where he arrived 10 minutes later. He recalled
that Ryan was able to ask, "Is everyone else all right?"
- indicating that one of his primary concerns, even in his
critically injured state, was for the welfare of his fellow
soldiers.
Ryan said
he needed "help breathing" and "to get up,"
which he then attempted to do. Both those inclinations became
prescient to Ryan's future: Aventilator would be used to help
him breathe for the next month, through what his father, Jay
Kules of Terravita in North Scottsdale, counts as "over
30 surgeries." And he is still in the process of getting
up and learning to walk again with his artificial leg.
"It is frustrating to have to learn how to walk all over
again," Ryan told The Desert Advocate. "This time,
I have to learn how to use different muscles in order to operate
the prosthetic. Some days it is very uncomfortable, and difficult.
I am up to the challenge, though ... anything to get me out
of the wheelchair and back on my feet."
He continued,
"I think about the troops every day, those I know and
those I don't. I miss being around everyone from my unit so
much. Injuries like mine are very difficult to deal with,
but I have to say: if this were going to happen to someone,
there is no better place than in the military. My family and
I have been taken care of, and my treatment has been second
to none."
Indeed, the coming days would prove crucial to Ryan. In the
Baghdad hospital, CPR was performed and a central line was
put into the femoral artery to prevent him from "bleeding
out." Within 25 minutes he was in surgery, and over a
period of several hours took 28 units of blood.
An emergency CT scan told doctors why Ryan was losing so much
blood-his spleen was damaged. That night a splenectomy, surgical
excision of the spleen, was performed. This surgical opportunity
also allowed doctors to confirm that there were no other internal
problems.
According
to Lt. Col. Wesley, one doctor who treated Ryan said he had
"never seen a save like that in 18 years of trauma care,"
while another commented that "in 10 months of working
trauma care in Baghdad" he had "never seen anyone
survive what he has." Wesley himself observed that "Ryan
was fighting with strength unlike that which anyone in this
theater had observed." |
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Soon
Ryan would be taken to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, to receive
further treatment. His wife Nancy Kules and his parents, Jay and
Canice Kules, arrived in Germany to be with him on the morning of
Dec. 2. Canice described his medical treatment in Landstuhl as sort
of "triage care to get Ryan stable enough" to be transferred
stateside.
"The doctors here are so well prepared to handle these types
of injuries," Nancy wrote in her online journal Dec. 2, "so
experienced and knowledgeable. I say this not only to relay what
great care Ryan is receiving, but to bring attention to the fact
that thousands of families have gone through this and thousands
of soldiers have suffered pain like this, or worse."
Nancy Kules maintains her online journal at the Caringbridge.org
Web site, adding new entries almost every day to keep people informed
and up to date on Ryan's condition and progress, and sometimes just
the couple's day to day events. Many wounded soldiers and their
families use the Caringbridge site to connect and share their stories,
although the site's services are not limited to the military. As
of January 24, 2006, according to Caringbridge.org, it had more
than 35,000 members.
In addition to the journals, the Caringbridge site also provides
a guestbook for others to send greetings to Ryan and Nancy. "It
really is a highlight for us to log on," Nancy wrote, "and
see that so many people are thinking of and praying for us while
we are going through this ordeal."
When Ryan was stable enough to be transferred, he was flown to the
United States on Dec. 4 and taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C., accompanied by his wife and parents.
"Ryan was saved in Iraq, stabilized in Germany and rebuilt
in Washington," Jay Kules said.
By December 8, according to Nancy's online journal for that day,
"all of (Ryan's) initial surgeries are done for now, and the
waiting game has begun.
One minute he's hot, then he's shivering. One minute he seems to
be in pain and is moving around too much, then he is too drugged
to even open his eyes. The doctors and nurses are walking a tightrope.
They are familiar with the game, but to us it is still pretty scary
when the monitors start to beep."
Ryan's mother referred to this period as "a roller coaster-up
and down, up and down," but at the end of it, "we got
the only possible thing we could have out of the situation. We got
our son back."
On Dec. 12, after three weeks in a coma, having undergone many surgeries,
the moment everyone had been waiting for finally arrived-Ryan regained
consciousness. And although Ryan could not speak, Nancy was able
to establish a language of blinks and movements through which they
were able to communicate for the first time since he was wounded.
"He was able to nod his head 'yes' and shake his head 'no'
at different points during our conversation," Nancy said. "I
was blown away with the things that we were able to get across to
one another."
From that point on, months of physical and occupational therapy,
regular sessions of 90 minutes each per day, are central to Ryan's
long journey home. Training and strengthening his muscles and learning
how to control the prosthetics are major goals he works on every
day.
Nancy has been with Ryan in Washington almost continuously. His
parents stayed with him for a three month period, in both Germany
and Washington, D.C., and have now returned to their home in North
Scottsdale where they have lived for about 10 years and where Ryan
lived when he was going to high school.
Ryan's father, Jay Kules, taught in the Scottsdale school district
for 29 years. In fact, he was teaching economics at Saguaro High
School when Ryan was a student there, although he never had his
son as a student.
Ryan was a member of the National Youth Leadership Program all four
years of high school, which included three trips to Washington,
D.C., to lobby congress on various issues. This experience, according
to his father, "opened Ryan's eyes to serving other people
and serving the community," values that led him to want to
serve his country in the Army.
After graduating from Saguaro, Ryan went on to Arizona State University
where he joined the Army ROTC in 1999 and received a scholarship
for the remainder of his college career.
He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army the day before
he graduated from ASU on May 16, 2003, with a degree in Justice
Studies. In October of that year, Ryan began the Officer's Basic
Course at Fort Knox in Kentucky and upon completion was made a tank
commander on April 1, 2004.
Only two weeks later, on April 16, Ryan married Nancy Surakus, whom
he had met in the spring of 2000 while in college, and Nancy Kules
has been a testament to those words in the vows that are often taken
for granted, "in sickness and in health."
After "earning his wings" at Fort Benning, Georgia, Ryan
and Nancy moved to Fort Riley near Manhattan, Kansas, where Ryan
was stationed until he was deployed to Iraq on February 2, 2005.
Last Wednesday, March 29, marked four months to the day that Ryan
was attacked and severely wounded on that road outside of Baghdad.
Nancy called it "a bittersweet day on our calendar." And
it's really only a beginning, for Ryan has a long road ahead-a long
walk home. But he and Nancy try to remain upbeat and they get a
lot of support from family and friends. And they're taking it one
freshly learned step at a time.
"For now, my main goal is walking," Ryan said, "regaining
my independence and doing the things that I was able to do before.
I am looking forward to regaining a sense of normalcy in my life.
Other than that, I just want to be a good husband, eventually a
father and, in the meantime, play with my dog."
(Lt. Ryan Kule's story will continue in Part Two next week in The
Desert Advocate.)
Reach the reporter at cmoore@thedesertadvocate.com
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