Great interview with Marine Corporal Juan Dominguez by KGTV News in San Diego. (Make sure to watch the video at the link.)
"I woke up with a bad feeling that day, I knew something was going to happen," said Dominguez.
The 27-year-old Marine Corporal was on foot patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan assigned to a battalion from Camp Pendleton. A rifleman on the front line-safeguarding the way for others- when he stepped on a 30 pound improvised explosive device. It threw him 15 feet in the air.
"It was a Saving Private Ryan moment where everything was in slow motion. I saw dirt flying and I saw my legs. It looked like mangled raw meat. I knew at that time I was a double (amputee) but I didn't notice my arm right away. I was screaming for God to take the pain away. I was saying please if you are going to take me, take me now. If you are going to keep me on this earth, please make me numb God," Dominguez said.
Within minutes his fellow Marines found him in a cloud of smoke and they refused to let him die.
"They kept screaming at me saying this was my ticket to go home and see my daughter. They were bawling, these guys were my best friends," according to Dominguez.
A Navy corpsman kept him from bleeding to death by refusing to give him morphine, lest he go into shock.
Dominguez remembers, "my corpsman was yelling at me, I can't give you morphine, because I don't know if I will be able to bring you back if I do. Stay with me, stay with me. ...
Read the rest about Juan's recovery, his Mom ("she is a strong woman"), his new life as a motivational speaker, and the upcoming benefit concert by Gary Sinise to help finance Juan's new adaptive home.
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