Iraq War Amputees Get New Limbs, New Life (3/8/04)

Iraq War Amputees Get New Limbs, New Life

March 08, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) - It was dark and drizzly in Baghdad on Nov. 25, and Army Staff Sgt. Maurice Craft was patrolling Highway 5 with two other soldiers. A bomb on the side of the road went off.

"I felt like I was being sucked out of the vehicle," Craft said. "The Humvee filled up with black smoke, and I just started yelling and screaming because from my waist down went numb."

Dazed, he looked at his mangled left leg, hanging lifelessly.

"I actually felt myself dying. I knew I was dying," said the 26-year-old paratrooper from Asbury Park, N.J. "Then, one of the soldiers grabbed me, and said, 'You need to make it. You've got a wife and kids back home. You can't die here."'


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