Tampa disabled veterans take on Kilimanjaro to help others

Disabled veterans climb Kilimanjaro to assist research
By Howard Altman
Tampa Tribune
Published: February 18, 2013

TAMPA -- Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Rodriguez struggled, losing his balance and falling every so often as he worked his way up Africa's highest peak.

But the higher he went up Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, something unexpected happened.

The effects of his traumatic brain injury -- the result of more than 20 years of combat and training as a Green Beret -- seemed to diminish. The often debilitating migraine headaches he suffers at sea level ceased.

"I have a theory that it may be because I was concentrating so hard on breathing to get up the mountain," Rodriguez said.

It is a theory that will be tested 8,000 miles away from Tanzania at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, by Stephen Scott, the chief of the hospital's spinal cord injury center.

The eight-day trek up and down the 19,340-foot summit of Kilimanjaro, aided by the Alaska Mountaineering School, was no tourist trip.

Rodriguez, 38, was taking part in a research mission run by the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge, a nonprofit organization created by Dave Olson, a retired Navy captain from Palm Harbor.

Rodriguez was on a team of men -- some missing limbs, some suffering from post traumatic stress disorder -- helping researchers on the climb learn more about the effects of altitude and stress on their maladies and prosthetics.

And to prove that losing a limb doesn't mean losing the ability to serve.
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Army SFC Michael Rodriguez talks about the TBI research

Army SSG Tommy Costello prepares to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro