ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - For former Army Sgt. Brian Grundtner, an 800-foot jump was what he called just “another day in the office.” The paratrooper had done enough of them that he wasn’t nervous for his 20th training jump - a requisite for maintaining “jump status” - despite the heavy darkness and windy conditions.
But about 80 feet above the ground, Grundtner collided with another jumper. His parachute malfunctioned, and he fell the remainder of the way. He hit the ground, rolled to minimize injury and blacked out.
“I woke up and the first thing I noticed was that my eyes didn’t work. Everything was black. I was looking at my hands and I couldn’t see them,” Grundtner told the Pioneer Press . “And then the situation kind of started to process in my head and I knew that I was on my elbows and my knees. I knew I was breathing and my heart was beating, and I could talk because I was trying to yell for help.”
Grundtner’s recovery began that day. Symptoms of his injury prevented him from returning to the Army, so instead he spent several months traveling the country, returned home to Minnesota to earn a master’s degree in business and begin working as a civilian.
Traumatic brain injury experts couldn’t specify just how many military members are affected by brain injuries but said Grundtner’s case was far from rare. The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center recently went to the U.S. Capitol to raise awareness for traumatic brain injuries in the military during training and combat.
Originally from White Bear Lake, Grundtner wasn’t a stranger to injuries as a child. He climbed trees, played sports, and, after enlisting in the Army Reserve at age 18, participated in military combat training.
He didn’t realize it until later, but in the 34 years before his fall, he had sustained an estimated 15 concussions, and he’d been knocked out three times, he said.
“Those add up exponentially over time as you get more brain trauma,” Grundtner said.
Brain injuries have received more attention as they’ve become increasingly relevant in sports, but many still underestimate the long-term trauma a concussion can cause, according to Scott Livingston, director of education at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.
“A concussion is another term for mild traumatic brain injury. Even though it’s on the mild spectrum, it’s still something to be taken seriously,” Livingston said. “There’s still this idea that it’s not necessary to take them as seriously and people will recover and go on and lead normal lives . but there is a small percentage of people that do have long-term problems after.”
Grundtner enlisted with the reserves while attending the University of Minnesota in 1996.
It was 16 years later, as Sgt. Grundtner was preparing for deployment, when the fall happened.
It was a standard training jump at Camp Mackall in Hoffman, North Carolina. There were 60 other paratroopers on his airplane that night and 60 more in another. It was windier and darker than usual, but the conditions were still considered safe, and midair collisions are rare.
Grundtner left the plane about 10 p.m. He hit a close friend who was jumping from another plane. The friend, who was 30 to 40 feet above ground at the time of the collision, sustained no serious injuries. Grundtner didn’t realize he was twice that high until he landed.
“I thought I was really close to the ground, so I got into the position we’re trained to do to prepare to land, and I mean seconds went by, or one second, and I was like ‘When the bleep am I gonna hit the ground?’” Grundtner said.
He hit the ground immediately after the thought and rolled.
“It was probably the most correct parachute landing fall I’ve ever done in my career,” he said. “That’s probably what saved my life.”
Then he blacked out.
He woke up on his knees and elbows. Following training procedures, he wiggled his fingers and toes and then moved his head side to side. When he moved his torso, he felt his bones grinding and realized he was in trouble.
“I let out quite a yell; it wasn’t quite a scream,” he said. “People heard me from a long way away. I’m pretty sure I used some choice words.”
Friends found him, removed his parachute harness and called medics. He was taken to the hospital at Fort Bragg, where he was diagnosed with a fractured spine and pelvis. He was later transferred to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Hospital for surgery.
Then he returned to Minnesota for convalescent leave - an absence from duty permitted to expedite a soldier’s return to full duty.
“Early detection of symptoms translates to early treatment. Early treatment of (traumatic brain injury) translates to better recovery, better outcome,” traumatic brain injury expert Lt. Col. Shirley Daniel said.
Grundtner spent time in a wheelchair and then used a walker on various doses of pain medication while in Minnesota, but it wasn’t until he returned to Fort Bragg in July, four months after the accident, that he realized he still hadn’t healed.
“My eyes weren’t working right. I would forget where I parked my car. I would get migraines when I stared at my computer screen,” Grundtner said.
Poor sleep exacerbated the problem, as some weeks Grundtner rarely slept.
A visit with Fort Bragg’s concussion care clinic later that month confirmed he’d sustained a traumatic brain injury from the fall, and the road to recovery would be long. Only about 17 percent of all concussions sustained - both within the military and in civilian life - are classified as moderate, severe or penetrating, according to Livingston.
The severity varies but often comes with long-term effects.
“For more moderate to severe concussions, most individuals will have some type of long-term deficit: physical, psychological or mental, or cognitive thinking areas of impairment,” Livingston said.
Still, Grundtner was determined to return to service.
“Physical performance is a big part of any military member’s role . so I needed to know that if I was in combat somewhere and I needed to move out or whatever, I needed to know I’d be able to do that. I’d be able to rescue an injured teammate and not be a liability on the battlefield,” Grundtner said.
That’s where his motivation to attend therapy stemmed from. He began working out in a pool a month and a half before his doctor said he could.
He had lost his vision for only a few minutes after the fall, but it took a year and a half of vision therapy to correct most of his vision problems, he said.
While at the Andrews Institute Rehabilitation, a physical therapy program in Pensacola, Florida, Grundtner gained functionality and mobility through multiple daily workouts. He rebounded from his physical injuries, learning to walk and run again.
In June 2013, after months of therapy both physically and emotionally, Grundtner was brought before an Army medical review board that would determine if he was physically fit to return.
He was told no and he decided not to appeal the decision
“What it came down to was . this conversation with a good teammate of mine from Minnesota,” Grundtner said. “It just came down to the fact that if we were deployed and something happened to him, could I throw him over my shoulder to remove him from danger? With my current physical abilities, I couldn’t say yes.”
Once medically retired from the Army, there’s no returning. So though Grundtner has since progressed enormously, he officially retired on Nov. 22, 2013.
Since then, his life has changed drastically. He traveled about 40,000 miles around the country, graduated with a master’s degree in business from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in May 2016, got married the same month and began a new job in July 2016.
“When I was in the Army, life revolved around my job. I loved it. I loved the people, I loved as much of it as you could,” Grundtner said. “I think that’s why a lot of veterans do things that benefit veteran communities. They’re looking for a community, people to understand, that are going through the same thing.”
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
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