Healing Marine shares challenges

ROGERS - In the eight years since Cpl. Aaron Mankin lost his face in a roadside-bomb explosion, he’s undergone more than 60 surgeries and hundreds of procedures. But it’s possible the ordinary challenges of life have been as much responsible for his personal growth as the blast.

Mankin was a young Marine and war correspondent aboard a 26-ton amphibious assault vehicle in western Iraq when the detonation of the roadside bomb recharted his life.

The blast disfigured his face, destroying most of his nose and ears, and inflicted second- and third-degree burns on one-quarter of his body. Upon detonation, he had gasped, inhaling heat, flames and debris that severely damaged his lungs. Six other Marines who were part of Operation Matador that day were killed.

Since then, Mankin’s upbeat outlook and perseverance have made him the inspiration for Operation Mend, and he was the first service member to benefit from this collaboration of a philanthropist and surgeons from California and Texas to help wounded soldiers.

While relaxing at his dad’s home in Rogers last week, he joked that, while some people get up every day and put on their contact lenses, he puts on his ears.

“Yes, they’re silicone prosthetics - made in America,” Mankin said. “Wake up in the morning, put on my face.”

His advocacy work for veterans causes and emergence on the lecture circuit has allowed him to hobnob with celebrities and politicians, princes and athletes. Now 31, Mankin also has married, had two children and divorced in the time since he was injured. He’s retired from the Marines and achieved his goal of moving back to his hometown of Rogers, where he graduated from Rogers High in 2000.

“If anything, this experience has shown me that so much in life is temporary,” he said.

“We all have our moments.I have challenges that are unique to me,” said Mankin, whose appearance has changed dramatically since he was interviewed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in November 2007.

“Through my recovery -you have those times when you’re healing that it’s a setback,” he said, mentioning how scar tissue expands and contracts over time. “That roller coaster made me appreciate, that much more, the independence I had gained.Really feeling like: Life is what I make it.” OPERATION MEND

After the explosion, Mankin was sent to the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Centerat Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

“I was a patient, but I didn’t want to sit in bed all the time,” Mankin recalled. So, borrowing on his training as a war correspondent, he began talking with other military patients in the unit, trying to lift their spirits. He later got a job at Brooke’s Public Affairs Office as a patient and media liaison.

“You’re healing together,” he said, likening the burn unit to a place filled with self-deprecating stand-up comedians, all making jokes about suppositories and other indignities. “You’re sitting in the room with other wounded service members, and there’s some guy who’s worse off than you.”

Noting that he could still walk after the blast and still had all four limbs, he added: “There were others who were wounded more horrifically than I was.”

Mankin’s work with others at the hospital captured the attention of doctors and a philanthropist who were planning a pilot project to help wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Oct. 4, 2007, the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center and the Brooke hospital announced their partnership - Operation Mend - a collaboration of surgeons and staff members. The two entities established the initiative with the help of philanthropist Ronald A. Katz, a UCLA hospital board member.

Mankin was chosen as the project’s first patient.

LONG RECOVERY

Early surgeries included skin grafts and removal of half his index finger and half the thumb on his right hand.

Despite doctors’ initial expectations he would lose the hand, it was saved. Last week, he was anticipating having a couple more surgeries early next year to improve its functionality.

There were surgeries to extend Mankin’s arms and widen his mouth, in efforts to compensate for a tendency for the arms, hand and mouth to draw up because of the skin grafts and scar tissue. Mankin also underwent elbow and wrist surgery to restore flexibility.

Other operations he had at the Brooke hospital laid a foundation for facial reconstruction, such as some grafting and a nose flap procedure.

Within the first 2 ½ years, Mankin had underwent more than 30 surgeries.

An emotional Steve Mankin told the Democrat-Gazette seven years ago how, during his first three months of recovery, his son had been at risk for pneumonia and infection from the various wounds to his upper body, arms and face.

“They literally vacuumed his lungs every morning,” Steve Mankin said at the time, referring to Aaron’s doctors. “They even got bits of uniform out of his lungs. Dust. Particles. Vegetation. The belief is, to their best knowledge, that he actually did inhale flame.”

At one point within about the first year, Aaron Mankin recalled last week, “My mouth had contracted to the diameter of a nickel. My mom had to feed me through a funnel.”IMPROVEMENTS

Between 2007 and 2010, the surgeries included a lot of revisions on and around his mouth, and many later procedures have focused on keeping his mouth movable, Mankin said. One surgery in 2010 allowed doctors to fully open his nasal airways.

“That was really an awakening,” Mankin said happily. Heregained the joy of smelling and tasting food, not to mention experiencing the everyday fragrances most people take for granted.

“The next big surgery will be on my hand,” he said, likely sometime after the first of the year. This will make it easier for his right hand to grasp and hold objects.

To date, UCLA’s Operation Mend has helped 93 patients: Mankin and 31 other Marines, 53 Army soldiers, four from the Navy, three from the Air Force and one from the Army National Guard.

According to its website, the privately supported Operation Mend began with facial reconstruction, but since hasexpanded. Its services now include pairing patients with top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, orthopaedic reconstruction of severely damaged limbs, urologic treatment, otolaryngological care, repair of airways, reproductive treatments, design of prosthetic ears, and mental-health support “for warriors and their families.”

“A couple of generations ago, someone as severely wounded as I was would never have made it off the battlefield,” Mankin said. “It’s our proficiency in battlefield medicine that’s growing a generation of service members who’ve sustained injuries that most people have never seen before.”EDUCATING OTHERS

In March, Mankin was in Washington, D.C., helping the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America inform White House staff members, congressional members and Veterans Affairs Department staff members of the backlog veterans are facing when filing disability claims seeking benefits.

“Before the shutdown, the national average was - it’s over a year,” he said. “The goal is 125 days.”

In the days surrounding Veterans Day on Nov. 11, Mankin’s travels will include New York, where he’ll tape a Today show appearance and attend eventssuch as the veterans parade and a fundraiser for wounded ABC war correspondent Bob Woodruff’s foundation.

On Saturday, Mankin plans to appear with his mother, Diana Mankin Phelps, at a signing for her new book, A Mother’s Side of War, about her experience watching her son go through his ordeal. The event is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble at 261 N. 46th St. in Rogers.

Last week, Mankin mainly focused on getting ready for Halloween with his daughter, Madeline Mankin, 6, and son, Hunter Radek Mankin, 5. Madeline is a first-grader at the school Mankin and his siblings attended, Westside Elementary.

Mankin stressed a key point he makes in his talks: the intentions of those who built the roadside bomb that nearly took his life.

“You talk about teaching. I never thought I’d spend so much time teaching people thedifference between an accident and an incident,” he said.

“Someone didn’t ‘accidentally’ bury a bomb.”

Steve Mankin added: “This was an attack.”POSITIVE OUTLOOK

Aaron Mankin last week said he’s always had a heart for teaching. While he doesn’t hold court in a traditional classroom, veterans advocacy gives him a teaching platform.

“I’ve since found a new place that allows me to continue teaching,” he said. “I get to teach what it’s like to endure war and return home.”

His father and mother say their son has always had a positive outlook.

“This is something that happened to me a long time ago,” Mankin said. “That’s something I fight every day: to not let someone who buried a bomb in the middle of the road dictate how I live my life, or where I take my life from here.”