Mark and Melissa Shaylor visited Chase County Schools last week to discuss Traumatic Brain Injuries with students. Melissa said many soldiers returning from Iraq have TBIs. (Republican photo)

    By Carolyn Lee
    The Imperial Republican
     Mark Shaylor is glad to be alive. The past 14 months have been very long for him and for wife Melissa, daughter of Cathy and Royce Bernard of Imperial.
     Shaylor suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), among other wounds, while on patrol with his unit in Iraq. The accident which caused his injuries occurred 21 years to the day that Shaylor had been in the Army.
     Shaylor is a combat engineer, a Master Sergeant with the Army's Striker Brigade. As of now he's stationed with the Medical Holding Company at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Virginia, where he's doing a medical evaluation.
     It all started on Nov. 7, 2005, when Shaylor and his unit were on patrol, looking for IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices. They were traveling in armored vehicles.
     "In theory, we should have been safe," he commented.
     The soldiers got word that there were known kidnappers in the area. They apprehended them, and then headed back for their base camp.
     A vehicle came speeding towards them at a high rate of speed, Shaylor said, and then exploded. It was a suicide vehicle-born IED.
     The driver of the soldier's vehicle evidently lost consciousness as a result of the explosion and lost control of the vehicle, Shaylor said. It crashed over a bridge and landed 30 feet below. All seven passengers, including an Iraqi interpreter, were injured.
     Shaylor's injuries were extensive. He had a broken neck, back and two fingers, the head wound, and contusions on his chest.
     "I saw pictures of me later, and I should have been dead," he stated.
     Doctors performed a craniotomy on him at Balad, Iraq. The operation involves taking out the right side of the skull so that the brain could swell.
     Because of the seriousness of his injuries, Melissa was flown over to be with him. Shaylor was transfered to a hospital in Germany for a week, then spent 54 days at Walter Reed in Virginia.
     He was then sent to the McGuire VA in Richmond, Va. In March of last year a cranioplasty was performed, in which a plastic plate was inserted where his skull had been. Prior to that operation he had to wear a helmet to protect his brain.
     The South Carolina native has experienced stroke-like symptoms due to the TBI. He has numbness on his left side and in his left foot, no dexterity in his left hand and slurred speech.
     Doctors don't know how much more improvement Shaylor will see. "We've been blessed," Melissa stated. "We're getting back to normal."
     The 1989 Chase County High School graduate will resume a career as a CAT-scan technician in February in Petersburg, Va. Melissa gave up her job in Alaska when Shaylor was injured.
     He has been in the Army for 22 years, and said it's time to move on. Shaylor has found gratification working with other TBI patients, but doesn't know what he'll do once out of the Army.
     "Whatever makes him happy," Melissa smiled. "If he went back to active duty, I'd be right there."
     This last call to duty, which landed Shaylor in Iraq in August of 2005, was the third time he'd served there. He served in Desert Storm, then in 1993 guarded a patriot unit.
     The 40-year-old has a son, Mark Allen, from a previous marriage.
     "It's been a long year, but we made it," Shaylor said. "I'm glad to have a new day."