09-12-06, 20:16
|
|
|
A story about one of our Canadian Soldiers from "back home area" who was wounded in Afghanistan.
Quote:
Fisher Branch pulls stops for injured soldier
By Cindy McKay
Friday December 08, 2006
Klodt may have sustained a serious injury in Afghanistan but his spirit remains high.
Submitted
“I still don’t know what to say,” Bob Schreyer says of the tremendous support the community of Fisher Branch has shown him and his family.
Neighbour and co-worker Brian Karsin, along with colleagues at the Fisher Branch Personal Care Home, are organizing a fundraising social to help Schreyer’s daughter, Deena, and her fiancee Christopher Klodt. The social is set for Sat., Dec. 16.
“They’re pretty brave,” Karsin said of the couple. “Most couples don’t face any kind of challenges that come close to a lot of things these kids are going through.”
In June of this year, Klodt and Deena Schreyer were busy as they just purchased their new home in Brandon. They were expecting a baby and making plans for a wedding. They paid a visit to Fisher Branch on Father’s Day weekend, shortly before Klodt was deployed to finish his tour in Afghanistan.
“Christopher had six weeks left in his tour and two weeks into it, Sat., July 7, the news came that he had been shot. Karen had gone to work and I was out mowing grass. When she got home she couldn’t speak,” Schreyer said of his wife’s reaction.
The Fisher Branch couple drove to Brandon to be with a very pregnant Deena before she flew to a hospital in Germany. The prognosis wasn’t good, as Klodt had been shot in the neck in a battle about 20 km outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“The real story is what happened and the rescue in itself. It’s the stuff movies are made of,” Schreyer said. “The other guys were the real heroes. I still get emotional thinking about it.”
Klodt was the pointman as his team headed into a village, about 20 kilometers outside of Kandahar, where there had been a lot of fighting.
“He was the first man out and remembers the sound of a gun, getting hit and then going down,” Schreyer explained. “Four other soldiers were in the group and one broke cover to grab him. Two more came to help and they continued to fire guns at the Taliban. Their shells landed on Chris, who was being dragged by his comrades, and he has burn marks on several areas of his body.”
Klodt’s injuries were severe. A bullet went through his throat, crippling his esophagus and larynx before lodging in his spine. He is paralyzed from his shoulders down and the doctors believed, at the time of assessment, that he would never breathe without support.
“One of the commanders came in to see Chris, as he was classified as critical for the first three or four days, to thank him. Chris weakly waved the commander off and pointed to the tattoo on his chest which reads ‘Proud Canadian Soldier’,” Schreyer says of his future son-in-law. “He’s an amazing man.”
He was on life support for two months during which time Deena gave birth to their son Johnathan.
A new sense of determination over took the 24-year-old athlete and he used the discipline learned from the military and applied it to his latest mission ... to get as well as he possibly can.
While Klodt still has a five-inch bullet lodged in his neck, he has regained his voice and is progressively gaining more movement in his arms and hands.
He’s being discharged on the 7th of December from a hospital in Hamilton, where his family resides, and will return daily for physiotherapy treatments. The couple is looking forward to returning to Brandon as soon as Chris are able.
Knowing determination will only carry him so far, Klodt is exploring stem cell surgery. It’s a high-risk procedure, with no guarantees.
“It’s elective surgery. The risks are very high and a number of things can happen,” Schreyer says of the procedure. “He might be paralyzed completely, not make it through or it could be successful. They are meeting with the surgeon before they come out.”
Insurance companies are unwilling to cover the procedure and the couple is willing to gamble, no matter what the cost.
“Deena said he’s determined to look after Johnathan,” says Schreyer. “We are blown away by the support shown for Chris. He is not from here but I hope the event will make people aware of all the military families who have relatives enlisted.”
Schreyer said the event offers the community the opportunity to support the soldiers who proudly do their job.
“This event is so much larger than Chris. He’s just the catalyst, as the whole idea is to create more of an awareness campaign for the people in the area,” says Schreyer. “Whether you agree or disagree, we need to support these Canadian men and women. If we don’t, they have nothing to be proud of. They are adamant they are there to do the job and they are proud of what they are doing.”
In the Fisher Branch area alone, he knows of about 12 families who have military connections.
“Some may be deployed. I hope they all get back home safely,” Schreyer concludes.
There is a photo of Christopher Klodt to go with this story about him. 
http://www.interlakespectator.com/News/274018.html
|
|