We received this letter from Emile Meylan, the father of Mariela Meylan, a US Veteran that was injured while serving over seas.
Mariela on graduation day from the US Army.
My daughter, Mariela, served in the U.S. Military. She was stationed in Kuwait and was injured in an auto accident while on patrol. On December 19th, 2004, she and three other soldiers were changing a flat tire on their truck on the side of the road, when their vehicle was hit by a passing motorist.
The hit-and-run driver fled the scene. Two of the soldiers that were with her were killed. My daughter was so severely injured in the accident that she was transferred from Kuwait, to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany. My wife, our Son-in-Law and I all traveled to Germany to be with her. When we arrived on Christmas Day, Mariela was in a coma.
Due to the severity of her injuries, on December 26th she was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. We were invited to fly home with her aboard an Air Evac C141 Flying Hospital plane, along with fifty other soldiers injured in Iraq. Some were missing limbs, others, like Mariela, were non-responsive.
Mariela in her new sports wheelchair.
Mariela spent nearly eight months in a coma. She stayed two years at Walter Reed Medical Center, and was then transferred to the Veteran’s Hospital in Livermore, California, where she would spend another year. After a year in Livermore’s facility she was allowed tom come home with us.
Here prognosis was that she would never wake up from her coma, but she did! It was also thought that she would never regain her ability to walk, but she did!
All of this, we have, thanks to people like Mark Williams, and Matt Beinke and the Wheelchair Foundation.
Thank you,
Emile Meylan
Thank you Emile for sending us this letter and the pictures of Mariela and THANK YOU Mariela for your service to our country.