It is time we check in with another of our Supply Crate shipments. This request actually came in from the wife of a wounded Army veteran who heard about our program from one of our previous Air Assaults.
The soldier that the request was for, Jerry, was in a convoy in Iraq in 2005 when his vehicle was hit with an explosive device; he then proceeded to take FOUR gunshot wounds over the next hour of fighting. He was evacuated from the country, flatlined for 93 seconds, and has since undergone 73 surgeries to date with more scheduled in the future to deal with the following:
My injuries include, 37% total body surface burns, 100% of my face and scalp were burned, with the loss of both ears and most of my nose. Complete loss of pinky and thumb of the right hand and amputation down to the first knuckle of remaining three fingers of right hand. Fingertip amputation of all four fingers of the left hand. Gunshot wound to the right shoulder and three gunshot wounds to the right upper rear leg. Three fractures to the lower spine, loss of 1/4 of my stomach and 1/3 of my small intestines.
Jerry was a big gamer, but he lost several fingers on each hand and he figured his days of gaming were over. However, his wife saw what Stack Up did for triple amputee Mr. Tyler J Southern and reached out to us to see what we could do.
Turns out, our veteran coordinator Dave Crouse spoke with him at length, figured out just what we needed to do in order to get him gaming again, and we got it done! Primarily, it was about working with him to find and modify a controller that he is able to use effectively given his situation. His kids had the PS4 already, so we sent him a few Playstation gift cards so he could get caught up on all the games he missed out on over the years that aren’t out in stores but are available for download.
From Jerry:
Good morning, I just wanted to let you know that I have received the controller, games and gift cards. I cannot thank you enough, I am excited to give it a try, however; I found your box when I was returning home from surgery number 74. I had surgery on my left hand, the good one, that had to remove another 1/2″ of bone from my pinky…hopefully next week my finger will have healed enough for me to try to game once again. I thank you very much for helping me find a way to relax with the gaming once again.
Thank you so much, Jerry, for the awesome pictures! It is our pleasure to be able to give back to this fantastic soldier and be able to do our part to get him back up and gaming again!
If you’d like to make a donation that gets sent over to our troops as a Supply Crate, Stack-Up takes lightly used PS4, and Xbox One games and gear as well as cash donations. Please help us help these vets out here:
