The Accident: Part 3 Germany

The Accident: Part 3

USS Scott DDG-995 January 1992

Now, I am the responsibility of the Air Force. I am carried onto the place and set in place. The flight was part medivac part returning military from Desert Storm. I know there were other patients on litters on the plane.

The Air Force doctor is talking to a couple of the nurses, a male, and a female. I hear him running down my condition and what needs to be done. He is talking to the male nurse, “His bladder is distended, and he needs a catheter.”

The male nurse must have given him a strange look, so the doc turns to the female flight nurse and tells her what needs to be done. She takes care of that like a champ. Before she unclamps the tube, she tells me it will feel like I am peeing myself and not trying to stop it. She also tells me they had to let it out little by little, or I would go into shock.

The flight was pretty unremarkable, other than landing in Turkey, too, for some reason. We land in Germany, and I get an ambulance ride to the Wiesbaden Air Force hospital. I am not sure what happened on the ambulance ride, but several things seemed to go wrong. I became very restless and had horrible heartburn. Also, I got a slug of water in my nose from the oxygen. They hit me with something that knocked me out, and I wake up in the hospital on a nice soft hospital bed.

I know I was there while the AFC Championship game was playing because I was worried about my parents knowing about me being hurt. I was stuck in the bed since I was in traction. So, after the head nurse did some magic with the phones, they wheeled the whole bed out to talk with my parents. My mom said the XO from my ship had called and let them know I was hurt, but OK. She had spoken to my wife and let her know what she knew. A while later, the same nurse could get through to my wif, and I spoke to her.

One of the male nurses came in to remove the catheter; he did not seem happy. That was nice to have out, so I would go on my own now. Later that same day, the same nurse returned, again not too happy. It was sponge bath time. He took care of my chest and back, then set the sponge down and said, “I’ll let you handle the lower half.” That was nice of him.

I stayed in ICU for 3 days before I was taken to a regular ward. This was a far larger room with 8 beds in it. I was an oddity being the only Navy person on the entire floor. The enlisted Air Force people had not seen many Navy people. One girl asked me, “What do I call you?”

“Jim,” I said back.

“Oh, I can’t do that. What's your rank?”

“Gas Turbine System Technician Mechanical, third class.”

She had a very blank look on her face.

“Petty Officer Adams is fine.”

I could not get out of bed and had not shaved for close to a week by this point. My doctor came in to have the pine for traction removed from my leg. Out came the bolt cutters to cut off the long end. The first cut was too long, so they had to cut the pin again. Each cut sent a jolt of pain through my entire skeleton. Then using a hand drill, the pin was pulled out. I will spare the lengthy detail; it hurt like hell!

The next day I was finally allowed to take a shower. I think it had been close to two weeks by this time. I was told to ring the nurse's station when I was done. I will admit I was in there a very long time. The hot water was just too wonderful to turn off. I am not sure how long she was standing there watching, but one of the nurses was outside the shower area.

She told me it had been a while, and she was making sure I had not fallen. I am glad I am not a modest person, or all of those women getting to scope me out would have bothered me. But, I explain to her about Navy showers and how great it was to shower again. She told me to get dressed and shave, then come see her. My bread had a little length on it, and shaving from a wheelchair was difficult. Oh yeah, all of this time, I had to try to do everything without putting any weight on my left leg.

The nurse changed the wrapping on my leg, covering the two holes where the pin was. I was back into bed and back in traction. This time there was a wrap-around my lower leg to hold it. The traction was to put the muscles under strain. Any dislocation for any joint can cause the muscles to shorten.

I spent my time with the physical rehab team getting my left leg to bend without pain. Then I was taken off traction and finally put on crutches. While still in the wheelchair, I took a ride over to where the Middle East Hostages were after they were released in late 1991. This was the group held in Lebanon from the late 1980s until their release.

Shortly after, I was in the big room a shipmate from Scott showed up. He had a blag of my clothes and some of my personal items. He also had a set of TAD orders assigning me to Air Force Hospital Wiesbaden. He was there two days then left. That was my last contact with Scott until she returned from her Med Cruise.

Part of my duty was to spend time in the Navy liaison office. She was a single mom and was the only other Navy person in the hospital at the time. I found it strange I had to sit in her office for 4 hours a day, but hey, it got me out of the ward. We would order pizza and have one of the guys in the ward, who could walk, go pick it up. We even stayed up late to watch the Bulls play the Pistons. 

One night I guess my mom had freaked out since I had not called often enough. So, about 10:00pm, they get me up and have me call her. So, I did call every couple of days to keep her happy. I requested to return to Great Lakes since I lived close to the base. I did not know at the time DesRon 10 wanted me sent to Portsmouth. That caused an issue a little later on.

After a couple weeks in Germany, I was ready to head back to the states. Since I was technically assigned there, I had to check out, so the day before, I was wheeled all over the place doing that. I even had to pay my bill. But, I also received a portion of my TAD pay! The next day it was off to the airport at about 5:00 am. That was one very long day as we landed in the US at about 2:00 am Germany time the next day, 21 hours.

The Air Force hospital treated me very well. The food was excellent, and I did continue to drink tea with breakfast. All of the staff was amazing. My doctor was as funny as hell. He would stop in to see me pretty often, aside from the regular rounds. All in all, I did enjoy my time, under the circumstances, in Germany.

I will have another part and maybe wrap this part of my Navy journey next week.