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`He's fighting, he's coming back'
Family keeps bedside vigil after axe attack
Canadian soldier may go home soon, MD says
Mar. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM
SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU
LANDSTUHL, Germany—Capt. Trevor Greene never gave up on people in need, and his family aren't about to give up on him.
The 41-year-old Canadian soldier, one of 2,200 on a mission to secure and rebuild southern Afghanistan, has been in a medically induced coma with severe head injuries since an Afghan attacked him with an axe near Kandahar on Saturday. His family have been at his bedside at the U.S. military hospital here since Tuesday, reading him messages of support from across Canada.
If love could heal, the officer would be back on his feet in no time.
"We just keep talking to him. We know he's hearing us. He's fighting, and he's coming back," said Greene's father, Richard.
"He'll be mad as hell when he wakes up and realizes he can't be in Afghanistan," Richard Greene, 68, added in an interview. "But once he gets back on his feet, there will be other ways for him to serve people."
A retired RCMP staff sergeant, Richard Greene was pleased to speak of his son's accomplishments, first as a journalist and later as a soldier. But at times he broke down, banging the arm of his chair or burying his forehead in his hand.
"He'll pull though. He's going to make it. He's a lot stronger than I am, I tell you," he said. "We just love him to death and support him totally. And we will continue to do so. He'll come back."
Richard Greene lives in Nova Scotia but he and his wife, Elizabeth, got the news of the attack on their son while in Florida, where they spend the winter months. Trevor Greene's wife and his 14-month-old daughter, Grace Elizabeth, came from their home in Vancouver, and his sister Suzanne travelled from her home in Oakville. They'll stay by Trevor's side until he's allowed to travel home.
Dr. Catherine Gray, with the Canadian military, said that could be within seven to 10 days. She said Greene's condition has improved from critical to serious but stable.
"He's made slow but progressive movements forward in terms of his neurologic status," she said in an interview. Today the big news is that he opened his eyes to stimulation. It was an involuntary reflex but medically speaking that is definitely a step forward," she said, adding he also moves his limbs when stimulated.
"We're optimistic and pleased with the progress. It's extremely difficult with head injuries to foresee the future, but it's definitely a step forward," Gray said. Trevor Greene is being "assisted" by life support equipment and would die without it, Gray said. But "his basic functions are starting to come back," she added.
The big concern now is the potential for infection caused by the blow from the non-sterile axe, Gray said.
"It was a very direct and a very severe hit," she said.
The attack hasn't diminished Richard Greene's support for the mission in Afghanistan. And he hopes Canadians won't second-guess the need for Canadian forces there if casualties mount.
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` He's going to make it.
He's a lot stronger
than I am, I tell you.'
Richard Greene, soldier's father
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"The Afghan people need the help. That's why Canadians must continue with this bloody operation. Those people who do not understand what this whole mission is about had best find out. If they had the information, they'd be much more supportive," he said.
Trevor Greene, an officer in the Canadian forces' Civil-Military Co-operation unit, was sitting with tribal leaders in a destitute village, jotting their needs in a notebook, when an axe-wielding 16-year-old struck him on the head. The youth was immediately shot dead by Canadian soldiers.
The Canadian military has said the teenager was a member of the Taliban, the regime that harboured Osama bin Laden before being ousted in a U.S.-led war. But one tribal elder has denied the Taliban connection, claiming the boy was angry at heavy-handed tactics used by coalition and Afghan army units during search operations.
Richard Greene said Canadian soldiers providing security at the meeting were "blindsided" by an attack that was "totally and completely unforeseen."
"How in the heck can you foresee this? This incident will cause (Canadian forces) to perhaps approach the whole situation differently," he said.
He said he feels no anger towards the Afghan youth who attacked his son and even "said a prayer for him."
"I feel bad for the young lad who did this. He came from a family as well. His background has been war and that's all he knows. He probably didn't even know what Trevor was trying to do or what Canadians are trying to do."
Trevor Greene began his career as a journalist in Japan, where he wrote a book about the country's homeless. In the mid 1990s, he joined the navy before returning to journalism and writing a book about Vancouver's prostitutes. In 1998, he joined the army.
A military tradition runs in the Greene family, including two uncles who fought in World War II.
"He grew up with the tradition of attending Remembrance Day ceremonies and visiting the Cenotaph in Ottawa," Richard Greene said. "He also watched every war movie that was ever made and read every war book ever written."
He was aware the Afghan mission was a risky one, but was determined to do what he could to help rebuild the country, his father said. Trevor Greene left for Afghanistan at the end of January.
He was promoted Sunday from lieutenant to captain while in a coma at the Landstuhl hospital.
Under an agreement with the U.S., Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan are evacuated to the Landstuhl hospital for treatment before being transferred to Canada. In the last four months, about a dozen Canadian soldiers have been treated at Landstuhl, some of them for non-combat illnesses.
Three Canadian soldiers flew into Edmonton from the hospital in Landstuhl yesterday. Sgt. Darren Haggerty, of London, Ont., and Pte. Miguel Chavez, originally from San Salvador, were injured when their vehicle overturned in southern Afghanistan. Master Corporal Michael Loewen was injured during a suicide bomb attack. Loewen will undergo reconstructive surgery at the University of Alberta Hospital to save his arm.
Trevor Greene is the only Canadian soldier left at the hospital. His father is effusive in his praise for the care U.S. doctors are giving his son, and the accurate media coverage of the attack.
"The coverage that the Toronto Star gave on Sunday was just absolutely phenomenal. We really, really appreciated it," he said, praising the work of Star correspondent Mitch Potter and photographer Rick Madonik, both of whom are in southern Afghanistan.
