'Stress-free' time under the Big Sky
02.10.11
Lance Cpl. Kenton Kurz thrust his right leg out to the side at
each step as he limped briskly through the sloping yard to the
horse pasture. He was eager for the morning horseback ride, despite
a nerve-damaged right leg that sometimes stings like bees.
“I took shrapnel in both my legs and both my arms,” said Kurz, a
tall, rail-thin Marine with an engaging smile and closely cropped
blond hair.
“The doctors are amazed I’m walking,” he said as he described
stepping on an improvised explosive device, or IED, while on patrol
in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
“I got real lucky. God had his hand on me that day. Not many
people step on 25 pounds of explosive and don’t lose their legs,”
he said.
Since triggering the explosion in early May, he has gone through
five surgeries.
“I turned 21 while I was still in a wheelchair,” he said
matter-of-factly, without a trace of feeling sorry for himself.
In June, he left the hospital in a wheelchair. He graduated to a
walker, then to a pair of crutches, and then a single crutch.
Source: Billings Gazette