Veteran invented Mongo wheelchair out of love

Better or Worse: Veteran invents wheelchair for paralyzed wife, wants to gift to all disabled Veterans
KMBC 9 ABC News
Rob Hughes
June 8, 2018

What started as a way to help a Veteran's wife has turned into a mission to help all disabled Veterans.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.
A local woman was paralyzed after a car wreck. She lost her job, even her dignity. Her husband invented a wheelchair that not only gave her freedom, but her life back.

"It will open so many doors for them," said Liz Soden, describing life in her "Mongo" wheelchair. Before her husband Brad invented the Mongo state of the art wheelchair for her, she constantly felt judged. "When I'm in my Medicare chair, people don't talk to me, they will turn away; I've had people walk across the street, so they wouldn't have to be next to me," said Liz, who missed participating in fun outdoor activities with her family.

Brad, an Army Veteran who served overseas with the 3rd Infantry Division, invented the Mongo wheelchair to be all-terrain, with speeds up to 25 miles per hour. It includes features that allow the user to stand up or lie down. "When I'm in this, people actually come up and they want to talk to me, I'm a person again, and I have a conversation, and I can say stuff; normally they don't even look at me," said Liz, who mentioned the Mongo chair allowed her to smile again.

"A lot of these guys are eating bullets, and want to, they think it's better for their families if they're not around anymore," said Brad, referring to the helpless feeling disabled Veterans have when they lose their independence. One of the goals of the Mongo chair is to stop Veteran suicide because it's designed to give Veterans purpose and direction; making them employable and able to participate in activities with their families they otherwise couldn't.

Brad hopes to raise one million dollars to gift a Mongo chair to all 60,000 American Veterans who currently use a wheelchair in their day to day life. "Somebody being hurt, it's just not their issue, it's a family issue, so that's what we're about, is coming up with solutions," said Brad.
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Marine's Wife Paralyzed in Robbery is Pregnant

Family raising funds for former Marine's pregnant wife paralyzed in alleged armed robbery
FoxNews.com
Published January 27, 2017

“This baby is a miracle. It shouldn’t have survived it. I can’t wait to find out what we’re having and give birth,” Webb told KPRC2. “It’s seriously what is keeping me going.”

The Houston woman who was left paralyzed in an armed robbery and later discovered she was pregnant at the hospital is speaking out in an effort to help authorities nab the alleged suspects. Paxton Webb, 23, is still recovering at Texas Medical Center.

“I am here ad I’m fighting every day,” she told KPRC2.

Webb was working at Katz Boutique, an adult shop, on Christmas Eve when a pair of armed suspects whose faces were covered allegedly demanded money from her before firing a shot into her back. The assault left her paralyzed from the chest down.

“The bullet completely severed my spine, hit my lungs, missed my heart by less than a centimeter, fractured a couple of ribs and fractured my left shoulder,” Webb told KPRC2.
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ABC 13 News Video from robbery

Paralyzed Veteran Didn't Just Walk Again, He's a Hotshot!

Fort Carson combat veteran beat paralysis to become hotshot recruit
Colorado Springs.com
By Ryan Maye Handy
January 15, 2016

Kenny Bower stood on a steep, grassy hillside overlooking the Waldo Canyon burn scar with his ear cocked toward his radio.

The 2016 Winter Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy (CWFIMA) has been holding a weeklong class in Colorado Springs. A group of the first-time firefighters spent the afternoon on a grass hill behind UCCS knocking down an imaginary fire on Wednesday, January 13, 2016. Kenny Bower, a Fort Carson soldier who had several severe injuries while serving in Afghanistan, mans the radio for his group during the class. He wants to fight fires to honor a friend of his who a member of the Granite Mountain hotshot crew, who was killed in 2013 along with 18 others. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette

His firefighting tool was still by his side while he listened to the transmission - winds were picking up, humidity was dropping and nearby trees were starting to ignite. He called out the warning to his crew and bent back to his work cutting a line into the dirt up the hill.

The fire burning a slope behind the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs was make-believe as part of a weeklong wildfire training program at the university.

But Bower, a former Fort Carson sergeant and combat veteran with two Purple Hearts who gave up a 12-year military career to become a firefighter, is the real deal.

Watching him swing a tool, it'd be hard to guess that the jocular and smiling Bower, 31, was left paralyzed from the neck down after a bomb blast in Afghanistan. It'd also be hard to guess that he's missing a chunk of his left calf muscle and that his body is riddled with shrapnel.

His recovery from two severe injuries during three deployments to Afghanistan comes down to willpower, Bower said.

"I try to never let it get to me," he said Wednesday.
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Disabled Firefighter Saved by Afghanistan Meatball

Dog rescued from Afghanistan returns favor by helping save owner’s life (With Video)
Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2012
By JOHN KOPP

CLIFTON HEIGHTS — The first time Meatball met Joe McCarty, the Afghan Kuchi puppy welcomed his new owner by peeing on him.

Five months later, McCarty and his wife, Kim, laugh at the story. That’s because Meatball and Joe now share a bond so tight that the 9-month-old dog knows when Joe isn’t right. That keen awareness might have saved Joe’s life earlier this month.

Kim said she was upstairs preparing to fall asleep one night when she heard Meatball begin barking incessantly. Meatball, Kim said, is not known for barking.

Joe, who served as a firefighter for the Sharon Hill Fire Department for 15 years, has suffered four strokes and is paralyzed on his left side.
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