To help Jose pay for his house please put "Jose's Place" in the memo portion on the donation box or in the memo portion of your check.
Thanks for supporting Jose.
For updates on Jose's progress please check his caring bridge web site. It is updated by the family regularly. Thanks for caring and please donate.
SSG (Ret) Jose Pequeno
Although Jose has a very severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) from Operation Iraqi Freedom, he continues to make gradual improvement. He returns to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for another surgery on April 6, 2010.
Jose’s had numerous surgeries over the past few years including multiple cranialplasties, two of which failed because of complications. So far his latest surgery seems to be working. In November, he received muscle flap surgery which will be fine tuned this time. This procedure will also involve very intricate bone grafting. To quote his mother Nellie, “We pray it works this time because there is nothing else at the moment that they will be able to do for him after this.”
Jose had to wait about one year after each rejection to let the healing process take place before they could try again. The process is very hard on Jose and the family. They continue to endure the hardships to provide Jose with loving, personal care while they live in rented home in Florida. Jose’s condition and regular therapy sessions at the VA Polytrauma Center in Tampa make this location the absolute best for him.
In the mean time, they also must worry about keeping the house going. They are on a rent to buy contract with a limit on the amount of time they can rent the home. That time limit is running out. While it was upgraded for accessibility, they still need the money to purchase the home. The landlord/owner wants to sell the home. We are asking you to donate to the purchase of this home for Jose. The Aleethia Foundation has taken on the task of raising the money for the purchase. Aleethia has no paid staff and no expenses will come out of these donations. 100% of receipts (minus fees kept by the credit card companies) will go toward the purchase of Jose’s home. Below the articles are instructions for donating.
We ask that you read the following articles written about Jose and his situation and give generously to the fund for Jose’s Place.
Thank you for your support of Jose and we will post regular updates.
Hal
Jose arrives in DC for surgery scheduled April 6, 2010
A Note from Nellie
Dear Friends,
A few lines to let you know that the doctors decide to go forward with Jose 2nd -part of his Cranioplasty surgery. This is what we been waiting for the last 4 years. I like to take this opportunity to thank you all of you who in one way or another have ben there to support us thru all this. My son, daughter and I thank you so much and may God Bless all of you!!!!
We will be in Bethesda on March 29th as out patient at the Fisher House while they do different test on Jose. Surgery is schedule for April 6th and expecting to be there for a few of weeks.
They are using a new approach. At this time the the Plastic surgeon and Neuro surgeon will take and separated one of the layers of bone from the right side of the skull and fix it on the left side. This way they will be using all of Jose own skin and bone which it will be less change of rejection and infection. Dr. Kumar plastic surgeon and Dr. Armonda neurosurgeon will be working with Jose on this. This is a very intense surgery and we ask that you please pray for Jose that everything will go well.
With lots of prayers and God by our side we pray this time it work and Jose make it thru with no problems. Please keep us on your prayers and hope maybe to see you while we are there.
Our Love and Respect Always,
SSG. Jose Pequeno, Nellie and Elizabeth
To help Jose pay for his house please put "Jose's Place" in the memo portion on the donation box or in the memo portion of your check.
Thanks for supporting Jose.
Hundreds say thanks in Wesley Chapel as hero comes home
Saint Petersburg Times
By: Erin Sullivan Date: Saturday, December 20, 2008
Link to Article
Land O' Lakes, FL -
The grenade blasted him out the door of the Humvee. The soldier who had been sitting next to him was dead. Others thought Staff Sgt. Jose Pequeno was dead, too. Half of his skull was gone. But a medic cleared his airway and got him out of Iraq and to a hospital in Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
It happened on March 1, 2006. Pequeno, then 32 years old, was a police chief in New Hampshire and the father of three children. Before that, he had served as a Marine, and later, he had enlisted in the National Guard. He was handsome and loved motorcycles and skiing. He and his wife lived a few miles from his younger sister and his mother. The last time they heard his voice was in a message he left for his mother's birthday a week earlier. They still play it sometimes. They don't know whether they will ever hear him speak again.
His mother, Nelida Bagley, and his sister, Elizabeth Bagley, have been by his side since then — nearly three years of caretaking. Nelida and Elizabeth both put their lives on hold when Pequeno was injured. They quit their jobs, moved out of their homes, put their things into storage.
Pequeno was bounced among four East Coast hospitals for treatment, including the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa.
Elizabeth got a job working in the canteen at James A. Haley about six months after her brother's injury, so she stayed here. She would work during the week, and then, if her brother was at another hospital, she would fly to see him and her mother on the weekends. Friends and medical staff have had to remind Elizabeth and her mother to eat and to sleep.
But it is that same vigilance that doctors say is the reason Pequeno is doing so well. Dr. Steve Scott, chief of the polytrauma unit at James A. Haley, said Pequeno's injury is one of the most severe — if not the most severe — of that of any survivor of this war.
"Love is better than any medicine," Scott said.
Pequeno has not had a bedsore since his mother was able to see him. He cannot talk or move, though his mother and his sister say that he communicates through facial expressions and sounds. For the past 33 months, his mother and his sister have had one goal: to get him home.
On Friday, that happened.
It is a rent-to-own house in Land O'Lakes. Contractors worked furiously to retrofit it to accommodate Pequeno — widening hallways, creating a new, huge shower, installing monitors so that Elizabeth and Nelida can keep an eye on Pequeno from another room. The money and the support came from the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, as well as many other organizations and persons.
Hundreds of people showed up to welcome Pequeno home. When they turned the corner to their street, Nelida nudged her son and told him to look at all of the motorcycles and flags, and his eyes opened wide. Nelida said they chose the Tampa area as their new home, for their new lives, because of the care at James A. Haley.
"They are like family," Nelida said.
Both mother and daughter aren't sure what will happen now. They have been living in hospital rooms and hotels and empty rentals owned by kind friends.
"I don't know," said Elizabeth, 24. Their next goal is for Pequeno to stay infection-free for one year, so that he can have surgery to replace part of his skull. This will give his brain more room to heal.
As Pequeno sat in his wheelchair, throngs of people lined up to greet him. They kept saying, over and over again, with their hands on their hearts or covering Pequeno's hands, their eyes glued to his face:
"Thank you for everything you've done for us."
"Thank you."
"Welcome home, Jose."
And Pequeno looked at his sister, who had her hand on the back of his neck. They do have a subtle language they understand. He looked as if he might cry.
"Don't," she said softly. "You can't get emotional, too."
He kept looking.
"I know," she said, leaning close. "It's a lot to take in. I know."
His eldest daughter, Mercedes, is now 13 and is tall and pencil-thin, with dark hair and grey eyes. She lives in Maine with her mother — Pequeno's first wife — but visits often. Pequeno's current wife is still in New Hampshire with their two young children.
When Mercedes calls her dad, her aunt or her grandmother puts the phone next to her dad so that she can tell him about her day. She says it was hard in the beginning, but now she's used to it.
She sat on a chair beside her dad and put her arms around him.
"Are you happy to be home, Daddy?" she said and kissed his cheek. "I love you."
Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.
To help Jose pay for his house please put "Jose's Place" in the memo portion on the donation box or in the memo portion of your check.
Thanks for supporting Jose.