This article helps me appreciate the blessing of my family & friends. I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!

USATODAY-Army Staff Sgt. Robbie Doughty has no complaints. Not about missing Thanksgivings with his family for most of the last decade. Not about spending half a year in the hospital.

And not about losing his legs after an ambush in July in Iraq.

“I’m just thankful for my family, my friends, and that my recovery has gone so well,” says Doughty, 29, of Paducah, Ky. “When I think about Thanksgiving this year, I’m just so grateful that I’ve received such excellent care from so many people. Everybody’s so well taken care of here.”

Here is the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Doughty sits in a model apartment in the hospital’s occupational therapy ward and reflects on what Thanksgiving means to him. Patients, many who lost arms and legs, use the rooms to learn again how to open a door, take a shower or pop a pizza in the microwave.

“It used to be that I’d numb myself to Thanksgiving and holidays,” Doughty says. “You got so used to missing them. It’s different now because of the injury. Everything’s different.”

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Posted by JohnKonop on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 1:51 am | under Uncategorized | |RSS 2.0 feed | Comments and pings closed. |