Paralyzed, Marine fights for active duty

Paralyzed, Marine fights for active duty
Foundation raising money for exoskeleton for SpecOps Marine
UT San Diego
By Gretel C. Kovach
MAY 30, 2013

Capt. Derek Herrera, of 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, during physical therapy with Lt. Cmdr JD Garbrecht at Camp Pendleton. Herrera was paralyzed from the chest down when he was shot in June 2012 in southwestern Afghanistan. — Nelvin C. Cepeda

CAMP PENDLETON — The first enemy bullet blew a hole in the neck of a Marine sergeant. The second lodged in the spine of Capt. Derek Herrera, a special operations team leader who was deployed last summer in southwestern Afghanistan.

Herrera tried to pick himself up and discovered he was paralyzed from the chest down. The sergeant lying so still and silent beside him must be dead, he thought. But the other Marine came to a few minutes after teammates carried them off the mud roof. Today that sergeant is almost fully recovered and back at work.
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