Wounded soldier's wife went into early labor

Pregnant wife of hero soldier who lost a lung in Afghanistan went into labour two months early after seeing his 'horrific injuries'
Daily Mail
By REBECCA SEALES
1 September 2013

At almost seven months pregnant, Helen Molloy faced every army wife's worst nightmare when two grim-faced soldiers came knocking at her door.

She was told her beloved husband Tom, who was deployed in Afghanistan as a Lance Corporal, had been dreadfully wounded by a mortar attack which claimed the lives of two of his friends.

Despite an eight-hour emergency operation at Camp Bastion, his life still hung in the balance.

Tom was flown to Birmingham, where he was rushed to the military medical unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston.

Desperate with worry, Helen was handed her husband's wedding ring, which he always wore round his neck as a symbol of their love.

She was warned that there might not be another chance to say she loved him.

The shock proved too much, and sparked a second emergency as Helen went into labour nine weeks early.

'When two soldiers turned up at my door and asked if I was married to Tom Molloy, I thought that was it,' says Helen, 32, who already had a daughter, Amelia, then just two years old.

'I thought my husband was dead. I’d been out shopping for things for my baby shower. The soldiers told me Tom had been injured by a mortar attack but they couldn’t tell me much more. I felt so scared.'
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Also

New lung bypass center could bring wounded home faster
Army Times
By Michelle Tan
Staff writer
Aug. 19, 2013

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, TEXAS — Spc. Eric Griego was on patrol in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province when his unit was ambushed and an enemy bullet tore into his neck.

“I stumbled to the ground. I wasn’t even sure what happened,” Griego said. “I fired off a few shots and my left arm, from shoulder to fingertips, was completely numb.”

Griego, of 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, then began having trouble breathing.

The bullet had entered the lower left side of his neck, damaged part of his left lung, ricocheted off the third vertebra in his spine, and then destroyed all of his right lung.

It was Oct. 18, 2010.

Days earlier, the military in Afghanistan received the equipment and specialists required to give patients a process called extracorporeal member oxygenation.
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