Love story of Nick and Jamie Orchowski

 November 18, 2012

Quadriplegic Cpl. Nick Orchowski welcomed home to new home

Injured soldier honored with new, specially-adapted home
KDVR
by Tammy Vigil
November 17, 2012

PARKER, Colo. – Retired Army Cpl. Nick Orchowski protected our freedom, only to come home from Iraq eight years ago to a prison of his own body. He is a quadriplegic, but has battled back to regain function in his legs.

On Saturday, the national non-profit Home for Our Troops gave him and his family the gift of independence, and the chance to start a new life in a brand new, specially-adapted home in Parker.

Orchowski, 28, his wife, Jamie, 30, and their two kids walked up to their new house in the Elkhorn Ranch subdivision with a welcome wagon like no other. Their new community has showered them with appreciation for Orchowski’s service that left him severely injured.

Orchowski was thrown from a vehicle that was hit during an insurgent’s attack in Baghdad in May 2004.

He broke his cervical spine from C1 to C6, and shattered his elbow in 36 pieces. He said he has two titanium implants holding it all together. A tendon in his right leg was also ripped away during the attack.

“We live in the land of the free because we have the brave to support that,” said Maj. Gen. Scott Schofield with the North American Aerospace Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base.

Homes for our Troops raised $200,000 in donations from builders, suppliers, area businesses, and schools to build the house for the Orchowskis. The home is worth nearly $400,000.

Army Corporal Nick Orchowski was on his first deployment when he was left a quadriplegic after being thrown from the gunner's hatch of a vehicle that was hit during an insurgents' attack, in Baghdad, Iraq in May 2004. Married only four days before deploying to Iraq, CPL Orchowski was the main gunner of the lead vehicle in a convoy, when they came under attack while on the main supply route leading into Baghdad. An insurgent's vehicle ambushed the convoy, slamming into CPL Orchowski's vehicle, the impact disabling the truck and throwing Nick out of the gunner's hatch. With his right shoulder pushed into his cervical spine area, CPL Orchowski suffered fractures of C4, C5, and C6 vertebrae and was immediately paralyzed from the neck down. As a medic worked to save his life, shots continued ring out and the ambush raged on. Nick's last thoughts before falling unconscious were of his wife and unborn child..., "This wasn't supposed to happen...is this how it's going to end?" Airlifted to Landstuhl, Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, his next memory was waking up on a respirator, unable to move, his head in a HALO device.