Injured soldier from Collins focuses on the road ahead
Family, friends help sergeant battle back after losing legs to bomb
By Lou Michel NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/20/08 8:12 AM
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- Sgt. James T. Hackemer says he enjoys visits from his wife, Alycia, and their two young daughters, one of whom was born in April at the same hospital where he was recuperating.
Sgt. James T. Hackemer lost more than most could ever imagine in March when a roadside bomb exploded beside his heavily armored vehicle headed into Baghdad.
The 26-year-old Collins soldier no longer has legs, struggles to express his thoughts and only recently learned how to eat again.
But Hackemer is defying the odds in a recovery he hopes will see him taking his first steps on artificial limbs by the fall.
He also knows that the insurgents who ignited the bomb, which also cost two other soldiers their legs, have been captured.
Rather than fixating on vengeance, the husband and father who once dreamed of becoming a New York State trooper would prefer to focus on rebuilding his life. The best part of recovery, he says, is frequent visits from his wife and their two young daughters.
“It’s been absolutely wonderful,” he said by phone. “I don’t know if I would have made it this far without them.”
His newest daughter, Addison Grace Hackemer, was born at 5:47 p. m. April 8 in Bethesda Naval Hospital, the same day he was moved from the intensive care unit to a regular room at the same Maryland hospital.
“James was moved up to the fifth floor that day, and his wife, Alycia, was just one floor above going into labor,” said John Hackemer, the sergeant’s 28-year-old brother, who saw the birth as a positive sign for the family.
An even bigger sign in the recovery, the older brother said, occurred a week earlier when he and his father, John Sr., were at James’ bedside praying that he would regain consciousness. He had been in a medically induced coma since the March 14 attack.
“It was a really hard time, and we thought maybe we were going to lose him,” John Hackemer said. “He was being taken out of the medically induced coma, but he just wasn’t responding. After we prayed, my father said in a sort of authoritative voice, ‘James, look at me,’ and James made eye contact. I just broke down and started to cry.”
After regaining consciousness, James often complained of experiencing pain in his lower extremities, though family members made no effort to candy- coat the sad truth that it was phantom pains he was feeling.
When he was transferred from Bethesda to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, where he is now, James was finally able to accept that his legs were gone.
“He went through a couple days of depression and crying,” John said. “All we could do was press in on him with love and let him know he wouldn’t have this uphill battle himself. We would be there for him. I’d say, ‘Brother, you lost your legs, but I still have mine, and I can carry you.’ ”
James Hackemer still smiles when his big brother offers him that assurance, but the sergeant adds that he is confident he will again walk with artificial legs.
“I have no doubt in my mind,” he said.
And now that he has learned to eat food again, he says he is determined to regain some of the weight he lost. Before the attack, he weighed 200 pounds; he weighs 127 now.
“I just got the stomach tube pulled out,” he said, adding that the joy of being able to eat “is an outstanding experience.”
Of his future, he says that’s something he will figure out when he goes to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,
D. C., in September to be fitted for prosthetic legs “and I learn more about my options.”
John Hackemer, who served six years in the Army and was planning to attend college before he started devoting himself to his younger brother, says he will remain with James throughout his rehabilitation.
As for James’ prognosis, John says the traumatic brain injury from the roadside bomb has changed his younger brother forever.
“There’s always going to be a small part of the old James missing, but he’s a new James now and better because of this whole thing. His value for life is so much higher now. His faith in God is very strong now,” the older brother said.
Friends and supporters may soon get a chance to see the “new James” for the first time since the attack.
A fundraiser to help the sergeant is set from 2 to 8 p. m. June 29 at the Moose Lodge, 201 Aldrich St., Gowanda. There will be food, beverages, music and an auction.
But that’s not all. The other two young soldiers who lost their legs in the attack also are hoping to attend the event.
“It will be the first reunion between the three of them,” John Hackemer said.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door or ahead of time by contacting Gene Hackemer at 549-0614.
