A soldier dealing with injuries

NBC News:

Army Staff Sgt. Tara Harrilson was wounded three times in Afghanistan, the first time when she was stabbed while on a Special Forces mission in 2004.

"I was outside the wire with my team, and it was pretty much – long story, short – it was a setup, and there were a whole lot of bad men and four of us," the 27-year-old native of Gaithersburg, Md., said recently.

"I didn't realize it until afterward, but I had been stabbed several times from different angles while trying to get out of the area," she said. "I can't go into more details than that."

Tara was wounded two more times in a series of explosions in 2005. In one of them, some body armor was blown off a hook and landed on top of her head, herniating her brain into her neck and causing a spinal cord injury. She also suffered shrapnel wounds on her arms, legs and chest in the explosions.

"I've lost a lot of vision in my left eye, hearing in the left ear," she said. "I can use my left side pretty good, just not real fine, like to grip and open a bottle, and I've lost a lot of feeling in it."

Tara, who walks with a cane, is still recovering from her wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"I think I'm doing really good for someone who just had brain surgery," she said.

She faces possibly more surgery on her brain, surgery on her spine, and a lot of physical therapy.

...

There is probably much more to this story than can be told right now. A woman on a special forces mission seems highly unusual. You can tell her adrenalin was pumping during the knife attack because she was not aware of the injuries until they had made their escape. The body armor hitting her on the head is probably a freak accident on a base that was under attack.

I wish her God's speed in her recovery. She is a brave woman who deserves our respect and best wishes.