Mighty Moms of Wounded at Walter Reed

The Mighty Moms of Walter Reed: Caring for children wounded in war
FOX News
By Jennifer Griffin, Justin Fishel
Published November 29, 2014

“Even under normal circumstances, moms take care of their young like fierce lionesses. But, when those children are catastrophically injured during war, there is no stopping their roaring maternal instincts.”

As Americans give thanks, there is one group of women they especially need to remember over the holidays: the Mighty Moms of Walter Reed. They pick up the pieces when their children return from war.

The stories of ten mothers and their children are featured in a new book, Unbreakable Bonds, The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed.

Some of these mothers have spent up to four years living with their child at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland while they recover from multiple amputations and traumatic brain injuries.

The stories they tell of the challenges they face as caregivers to our nation's wounded warriors are searing, inspiring and uplifting. Fox News interviewed half a dozen of these mothers to learn what they’ve been through and the "band of mothers" that they have formed as a result.

Stacy Fidler's son Mark stepped on a mine while wearing a belt of grenades in Afghanistan. He and his mom have been at Walter Reed since October 2011.

Fidler said she finds support in the group of mothers. “We share the good things and the bad things,” she said. “We clap when they take their first steps and get sad when they get sent back to the ICU.”

Fidler, like many of the mothers, spends almost all her time at the hospital caring for her son.

“Eventually you just end up living in a hospital room. It's your home. You end up moving in, sleeping there, eating there, everything with your kid.”

One theme common among the Mighty Moms is that almost all of them had to leave their jobs and dedicate themselves to caretaking full time.
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