Posted on 05/26/2004 10:59:25 AM PDT by Stoat
Captain has his leg amputated to stay in Marines By Richard Savill (Filed: 26/05/2004)
A Royal Marines officer who was badly injured in a 1,000ft climbing fall has become the first Commando to return to operational service with an artificial leg after he asked doctors to amputate his limb.
Capt Jim Bonney, 26, faced having to leave the Royal Marines and the loss of an active life, including a love of canoeing and climbing, after the fall while on an adventure training exercise in Alaska three years ago.
After various operations his right ankle had degenerated to an extent that further surgery would have meant fusing his foot and removing all movement.
When he realised his life would be greatly enhanced with a prosthetic leg he told doctors to remove his real one below the knee. Following the surgery, he has fought back to full fitness and has resumed the military career he chose when he was a boy.
Capt Bonney, who is married to Kirsty, 28, a trainee doctor, and has a four-month-old son Zak, is due to go on a landing craft officers' course in September. He is expected to specialise as an officer responsible for planning and co-ordinating the deployment of one of the Royal Marines raiding squadrons.
"I've got my life back," Capt Bonney said yesterday at the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre at Lympstone, Devon, where he has undergone intensive rehabilitation. "It has been worth all the effort.
"When I had the accident I thought like any Royal Marine it was a broken ankle and it would mend. But it became clear over time that it was more complicated than that.
"The reality was that my ankle was destroyed. It was never going to work properly. I was going to have to have it fused and fixed at 90 degrees.
"I went to my wife and told her my ankle was in bits and it was not going to get any better. I had come to the end of the road. There were lots of tears. We did a lot of research and decided amputation was the way forward.
"Doctors took more persuading because it is not every day that a surgeon is asked by someone in his mid-20s to have his leg cut off."
Capt Bonney said he had wanted to be a Royal Marine since the age of 12, when his grandfather took him to a Commando museum.
"Throughout my life I haven't looked at anything else," he said. "It hasn't been an easy journey but any Royal Marine would have reacted in the same way as I have. It is the way we do things. We have an ability to get through problems. The journey has required determination and focus. The banter in the Royal Marines has kept me going at times. Climbing and canoeing are the things that make me tick and I faced losing them."
Capt Bonney said the part played by his wife, whom he married two years ago between the accident and the amputation, had been "pivotal". "It is difficult to overstate the amount of support she has given."
Mrs Bonney said: "Initially I was just glad he was alive. As time went on it was obvious that it wasn't getting any better. We couldn't even walk hand in hand because he was reliant on crutches.
"I knew that if he set his mind to getting his life back as an amputee he would do it."
The operation was carried out in December 2002 and 14 months later Capt Bonney, from Petersfield, Hants, passed the annual combat fitness test. He completed an eight-mile run in boots and full kit, including 25kg in a bergen rucksack, in one hour 53 minutes. Royal Marines have to do it in two hours.
In April he took part in a 24-hour canoe race over 125 miles that involved lifting his kayak around 79 hazards.
Be sure to click on the article's link for pictures and links to the Royal Marines official website. I sent a "thank you!" email to them because I appreciate them so very much. May God Bless all of our troops and our allies.
Wow. If he had gotten a couple of paper cuts to go along with that injury he could have applied for purple hearts and a ticket home.
bump
oohRah for the Royal Marines!
Thanks for the ping stainlessbanner.
Royasl MArine Bump
Toughness (As this Royal Marine demonstrates) is measured by the mind, not the body.
I sent a "thank you!" email ...
&&&
Excellent idea! I sent them one as well.
Thanks :-) I'm not sure if I sent mine to the correct address, (hq@dnr.mod.uk which is down at the bottom of the "Contact" page, under "Overseas Enquiries") but if only one Royal Marine sees it before it gets deleted then I think that my time has been well spent :-)
The terrorists don't stand a chance against guys like that.
Now *this* guy is a trooper (and a "trouper"?)
I'd say both!!
Sweet Blue Yonder, but this man is TOUGH!
That's a sustained 15-minutes mile pace in full gear, and this man beat the standard.
Unfortunately, we here in America don't usually keep our walking wounded, whether they can perform the missions or not. An amputee could easily run a command post, or man a radio, or administer an office - freeing a fully capable troop for the line. And I don't recall having to have two legs to fire a rifle.
Another one was a guy that wanted to be a Master Diver or something in the Navy. He got clipped when a cable snapped or something and ended up having a leg/foot/partial leg amputated.
He was supposedly the first black Master Diver in the Navy. They had a movie about it with Cuba Gooding Jr. playing the part. Also had DeNiro, IIRC. The video even had behind-the-scenes footage/interview with the real guy… forget the name though.
I wouldn't be messing with this guy on the street...and you can bet I'd be treating his wife with the utmost courtesy as well!
Actually not having the leg and having a replacement for it may actually be a benefit in disguise....!
What do you mean I might ask?
Not having the extra tissue to feed and oxygenate leaves more reserve for the rest of the body. His heart, being keyed all his life to pump for 4 limbs now only has to do three. There is less strain on the cardio vascular system in total and actually less bp needed because there is less vacularity needed to pump thru it.
Also the new high tec limb replacements are very responsive to movement and balance and absorb the shock of running much better so the stump doesn't have to absorb it...there by reducing the over all energy requirements on the body as a whole.
All he needs now is a nuclear power pack and micro motor enhancemnts and the bionic man will be a reality.
Um, I think I'll do my ruck marches the old fashioned way, thank you very much! LOL!
Chief petty officer Brashear.
CC
JUST DAMN!
Great story..
pongggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!
The brass is a very recognizable sound when these men are walking or running.
Please don't take what I wrote, to imply that I think every-one should lose a leg...and the bionic thing was just a joke!
Plus which, if he runs out of bullets he can pull the leg off and beat bad guys to death with it....
GEN Fred Franks, USA (Ret.) was injured by a grenade in the Vietnam War and ultimately had his left leg below the knee amputated. He went on to command the VII Corp during the Gulf War.
Of COURSE I know it was a jest! No worries, Mate, as the good Captain would say.
Corp = Corps
...Good point...!
Kill them off with offensive fake foot odor!
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