Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors

Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors
November 4, 2008

By Jim Feehan
Cynthia Lefever continues to make noise. And she said she won’t stop trying to get national officials to improve medical care for returning Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress.



She’s intimately aware of the devastating effects of blast injuries. Her son, Rory Dunn, a 2000 graduate of Liberty High School, was nearly killed four years ago by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq. The bomb exploded above his Humvee, killing two of his friends. His forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. Shrapnel destroyed his right eye and his hearing was severely damaged.

He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad, where doctors worked to save him. Five days later, he was flown to a hospital at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where family had gone on “imminent death orders” to say their goodbyes.

“Doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival,” Lefever said.

Despite the grim prognosis, Dunn did survive. One day after he arrived in Germany, he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., still in a coma.

“When he arrived at Walter Reed, neurosurgeons said Rory’s injuries were the worst they had ever seen,” Lefever said.

The journey for mother and son the past four years has been a study of perseverance — Dunn defying the odds each step of his recovery and Lefever battling the Army to ensure he continued to receive critical care from Reed’s top-notch surgeons. Almost six weeks later, Dunn emerged from his coma.

“Within days of coming out of a coma, Army leadership was at his bedside putting a pen in his hand to start the discharge process with the ultimate goal of getting Rory off the books,” Lefever said.

“When we let these wounded warriors languish in bed and presume that all that can be done is to change their diaper and turn them regularly and get them out for fresh air, that’s ridiculous. I just think it’s immoral and unethical.”



Honored for her work

Lefever sought the help of various organizations and agencies providing assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and their families. She also called Sen. Patty Murray’s office. Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has become a friend and ally. In 2005, Murray awarded Dunn his Purple Heart.
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