Specialist Adam Watkins was stationed about 35 miles north of Baghdad in the Diyala Province, just beginning his 15 month tour of duty, when the Army Stryker he was driving hit an IED. Watkins was flown to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. "When we got there it was two in the morning and they took us straight in to see him and it was shocking," says Watkins' mother Susan. Thirty-seven-percent of his body was covered in third degree burns, he had several broken bones and internal injuries. Medical staff kept Watkins heavily sedated for the first several weeks. "After a while, once you figure it out you realize there's nothing to do but go day by day," Watkins says. Since that fateful night in Iraq, Watkins has had several fingers amputated, countless surgeries, skin grafts and 99 x-rays. "I'm roughly half-way through...I don't really have any open wounds at this point and it's just a matter of physical therapy, getting to where my hands can move, my elbows can move and I can stand on my own," he says. "He had so much trauma and so many difficulties that every day they just thought, 'oh my gosh, this is it,' but he fought, he's a trooper," Susan says. Watkins has continued to steadily improve, he's even started to walk again. The hospital is allowing Watkins thirty days to go home. Sunday he and his family arrived back in Fayetteville together for the first time in months. Despite what he's been through, he considers himself one of the lucky ones. "I've been dead probably two or three times now as far as what the medical staff has told me, and at that point you just think you're lucky to be alive and you think every day is precious, especially if you've been where I've been and you've seen people that are much worse than you."
