Bound by sports, wounds of war

Bound by sports, wounds of war
Soldier-athletes share the grief of lost limbs

By Juliet Macur
The New York Times

April 10, 2005

WASHINGTON · For 25 days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Danielle Green wondered if anyone could ever understand. But on the 26th day, a nurse told her: "A new female patient came in today. You have a lot in common."

"Really?" Green said, and the nurse nodded.

Like Green, the new patient was a 20-something firecracker, a 5-foot-8 former college basketball player, an Army soldier in the military police serving in Iraq.

Like Green, she also knew how it felt to have a rocket-propelled grenade shoot through her arm. Green's left hand had been torn off.

In the intensive care unit one floor below, 1st Lt. Dawn Halfaker lay in a coma, battered and swollen after surviving an ambush. Her right arm was attached to her body by sinews.

[partial text only; follow link for full text]