Quadruple amputee vet Todd Nicely sees new home

The toll of war now includes more amputees
By Steve Almasy
CNN
Sun May 27, 2012

Frank Siller, left, and Gary Sinise, center, announce a concert to raise money for quadruple amputee vet Todd Nicely

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
More troops surviving bad wounds thanks to battlefield medicine, body armor
Badly wounded vets find help via special organizations
One group raises money to build special homes for triple, quadruple amputees
Expert: VA needs staff, money to handle growing wounded population

(CNN) -- Moments after the explosion, as he lay in a canal in rural Afghanistan, Cpl. Todd Nicely screamed twice at the top of his lungs. He was hurt so badly, his right leg blown away, his left one barely hanging on, but then he thought of two things.

His wife and his men.

He didn't think of dying.

He wanted to concentrate on getting home, and before that, he didn't want his squad's last image to be its leader wailing in pain.

"I just [told myself] keep breathing, keep breathing. If you do that you'll make it back to your wife," he said recently by phone. "I knew I was injured. It was whether I could bring myself to remain calm and not freak out and cause my vitals to go crazy."

What Nicely, who had stepped on the pressure plate of a roadside bomb, didn't realize at the time was that he had lost more than his legs. His arms also would need to be amputated.

In another war, another time, Nicely would have died on the battlefield.

Truth be told, there's a strong chance his heart did stop at some point on that day in March 2011. But thanks to modern body armor and a helicopter that arrived in just six minutes -- as well as quick reactions by his fellow Marines -- Nicely lived and became just the second quadruple amputee to survive battlefield injury wounds.

They are a small group, the quadruple amputee combat vets -- just five of them.

There are also 40 triple amputees. When they come home, they have their own set of issues, but many face the problems of every wounded vet. They start their new lives together.
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