Double Amputee Afghanistan veteran becomes Dad

Wounded staff sgt., soldier wife use in-vitro benefit
Army Times
By Michelle Tan
Staff writer
August 21, 2013

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, TEXAS — After six years of marriage, Army Staff Sgt. Ed Matayka and his wife, Sgt. Karen Matayka, were ready to start a family as soon as they returned from Afghanistan.

“We decided to put it off until this last deployment,” Karen Matayka said. “I guess the joke’s on us.”

On July 2, 2010, four months into their tour, Ed Matayka’s vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

The driver, Spc. Ryan Grady, was killed. Ed Matayka, who was sitting behind Grady, lost both of his legs above the knee, injured his spinal cord in two places and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He wasn’t expected to survive.

But after countless surgeries, two strokes and months of rehabilitation, Ed Matayka reclaimed his life, with his wife and fellow soldier by his side.
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