Where I Stand - Mike O’Callaghan: After being broken a stronger man continues to serve

Saturday, Aug. 22, 1998 | 10:37 a.m.

A REAL AMERICAN HERO arrives in Nevada today when Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., lands at McCarran International Airport. He's a hero to me because of what he has accomplished since returning home from Vietnam missing both legs and an arm. Before becoming a member of the U.S. Senate, he served as secretary of state for Georgia and headed up the Veterans Administration for President Jimmy Carter. There's not a day he awakens without being forced to remember the day that a hand grenade exploded in Vietnam.

Several years ago, Cleland wrote a book entitled "Strong at the Broken Places." It's a book that gives hope to those who face physical therapy and helps others to understand the struggles and pain the injured must endure. When first reading it, I wrote in this column that Cleland's book describes everything from phantom pains to the feelings associated with dry bandages being removed from nerve endings. The title of his book came from Ernest Hemingway who wrote "life breaks us all and afterward many are strong at the broken places." Hemingway didn't say that everybody becomes strong at the broken places.

Cleland writes, "As I grew a bit stronger, 'therapy' became the watchword of my life at Walter Reed. A physical therapist started visiting me the first week. My wounds had not yet healed, and my arm stump still drained.

"'You've got to exercise the muscles in your legs and arms,' he said. "'How do I do that?'

"He explained that I'd have to learn to exercise in bed, using what was left of my muscles. Specifically, he wanted me to exercise my two 'legs' and my almost nonexistent arm by pushing against his hand which he held up as resistance for my muscles.

" 'I don't think I can do it.'

" 'You can do it,' he insisted.

"Straining, I pushed weakly, limb by limb, until I had nothing left.

" The therapist was quiet for a moment. 'Captain Cleland, you use it or lose it.'

" 'What do you mean?'

" 'I mean that if you don't use your right arm stump, your shoulder will become frozen in place. And if you don't exercise your leg stumps, the muscles in your thighs will shrink.'

"Gritting my teeth, I pushed against his hand again and again. As I continued this exercise day after day, I realized that, amazingly enough, I was getting strong at these broken places. The muscles that were left began developing and compensating for muscles that had been lost. Slowly, ever so slowly, my body was beginning to adjust to its new shape and the new demands placed on it. Hope began to grow in me again."

That's but part of therapy. Learning how to use new limbs and/or a wheelchair on our streets is no easy task. Not even dressing is a simple matter for some badly injured people.

Cleland described learning how to dress himself as one of his early struggles. He writes, "It was difficult. Shirts, especially took time to master. I learned to button my left shirt sleeve first before slipping my arm into it. Then I rolled up the sleeve on the right side. The trousers presented a different problem. First I inserted my left stump, pulling up the pants and tucking in the shirt as I went. Then I did the same on the right side. After stretching out on my back, I pulled up the pants all the way with a rocking motion. Fastening a belt wasn't too difficult, but pulling up a zipper with one hand was a battle. I learned not to untie my ties, but to just loosen them into large circles and pull them on and off over my head."

Today there are several hundred Nevadans facing the pain and task of physical rehabilitation. Industrial and vehicle accidents put millions of Americans through the stress and strains demanded by physical therapists. The injured don't want, nor do they expect, sympathy. They only want to get well. All of the seriously injured have days they want to quit and just stay in bed. They don't, because, like Max Cleland, they want to continue their quest for the American dream.

Despite the weather, and difficulty in traveling, Cleland recently visited our troops in Bosnia. Today, he comes to Nevada, in the heat of summer, to visit the military veterans and their medical facilities. Sunday morning at 11 o'clock Sen. Harry Reid will introduce him to local veterans at the Las Vegas Hilton Pavilion 4.