After a Baghdad Bullet, a Mother’s Love

Mom turns home into ICU to care for severely wounded soldier son

Malerie Briseno, 22, left, talks to her brother, Joseph Briseno Jr., 27, as their mother Eva Briseno watches at their home in Manassas, Va. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left Briseno Jr., paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition. The family takes care of “Jay” in their suburban Virginia home where the family room has been transformed into an intensive care unit. (Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

By Marilynn Marchione

May 9, 2010

Excerpts

MANASSAS PARK, Va. — There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother’s Day will never be the same.

And then there is Eva Briseno.

Joseph Briseno Jr., Eva’s 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition. …

Each day starts with two hours of bowel care, an ordeal as awful as it sounds. She labors over his body, brushing his teeth, suctioning fluid from his lungs, exercising his limp arms and legs, and turning him every other hour to prevent bedsores.

She sleeps a few hours at a time, when the schedule says it is her turn, often slumped in exhaustion by his side. …

What keeps Eva going is hope that stem cells or some future treatment advance will help her son.

“I do believe in miracles,” she says.

Yet desperation clouds her prayers. “Most of the time I ask God if I can take Jay’s place,” she confesses, unable to suppress a sob.

Hearing his mother, Jay cries too, the tears silently slipping from his blind eyes. …

Please read the full story

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Blue Star Mothers of America at St. Cloud Vets Parade

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — May 9, 2009

How to Beat Bachmann

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I examined the likelihood of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) being defeated in the 2010 U.S. House of Representatives election in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District. I concluded that Bachmann was vulnerable to defeat, but not by a Democrat in the general election. Instead, Bachmann is most vulnerable in the primary election against a Republican challenger — the reason being Minnesota’s open primary system. Specifically, with no party registration in Minnesota, self-identified Democrats and Independents are able to vote in the Republican primary against Bachmann, joining forces with disaffected Republican voters. The fact that Bachmann did not receive a majority of the votes in either the primary (47.2%) or the general election (46.4%) in 2008 underscores her vulnerability to a primary challenger with cross-partisan support.

Image: Ken Avidor / Dump Bachmann / TheUptake