Veteran helping disabled vet, wife rehabilitate home

Veteran helping disabled vet, wife rehabilitate home
Post Gazette
By Dave Zuchowski
November 8, 2012

James Kushto and his wife, Brandy, have had more than their share of troubles.

While a Marine in Afghanistan in fall 2009, Mr. Kushto, 36, suffered a traumatic brain injury in combat that left him deaf in his right ear and caused him to have lapses of memory, loss of equilibrium and severe headaches.

"He also suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and the military rates him 90 percent disabled," Mrs. Kushto said.

Complicating the situation was a house fire that took all their possessions a month after Mr. Kushto left Afghanistan for North Carolina in December 2009. The loss was so stressful, Mrs. Kushto said, she suffered a miscarriage, the fifth in the couple's 12-year relationship.

Then in July 2010, Mrs. Kushto, 38, had an automobile accident while driving her husband home from a visit to the doctor and broke two discs in her back. Surgery to repair the discs affected her nervous system, she said, requiring a pacemaker implant. As a result, she is now disabled too.

In March, the couple moved to southwestern Pennsylvania to live near Mr. Kushto's boyhood home, Irwin, renting a two-bedroom house in Fayette City. To make room for their daughter, Ashley, 17, the couple recently decided to purchase a larger house in Donora, owned by their current landlord.

However, the house needs costly improvements to bring it up to code, and they are unable to move in until repairs are completed. In November, they found themselves facing rent on their current home and a mortgage payment on their Donora dwelling, a financial drain that may be repeated in subsequent months.

Coming to their rescue has been former Marine and Iraq combat veteran, Christopher Thompson of Monongahela. The 24-year-old said he first heard of the couple's plight while attending classes at California University of Pennsylvania.
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