Cape Cod Times
By Karen Jeffrey
kjeffrey@capecodonline.com

May 09, 2011
 
WEST YARMOUTH — When a 19-year-old Vincent Mannion came home from the war in Iraq with a traumatic brain injury, his family had little idea of what lay ahead of them.

Now, four years later, Mannion and his family are still struggling to adapt their Hyannis home to make it handicapped accessible.

On Saturday, the Cape Cod Veterans and the Dennis VFW Post 10274 will hold an event to raise money for renovations to enable Mannion to get in and out of his home and to resume walking around the house — something that has become increasingly difficult as a result of his injuries.

"It's hard to ask for help," said Mannion's mother, Maura Brodeur. "In this instance, the veterans said they want to help us and it is a real blessing, otherwise I'm not sure how we will get this done."

"A Day for Vincent Mannion-Brodeur" will also serve to promote increased public awareness of the long-standing and in many cases life-altering impact of a brain injury, according to event organizers.

"I'm not sure even now that people really understand what families go through trying to make life more manageable for their children, their spouses and siblings when there are such serious war injuries," said Mannion's father, Jeffrey Brodeur, who has turned his own retirement into constant advocacy for his son and other wounded veterans.

Mannion, a corporal with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, was wounded while out on patrol and a bomb exploded, collapsing a building he was about to search.

Along with severe brain injury were other serious injuries. Shrapnel ripped open his belly and tore large chunks of flesh and muscle from his left arm and shoulder. Later, while being treated stateside, he suffered two strokes. In recovery Mannion has had to relearn how to swallow, eat, walk, talk, shower and brush his teeth.

His parents got a Veterans Affairs grant that let them adapt a bathroom for Vincent's use. However, there was not enough money left from the grant to widen the exterior staircase or install grip bars on the front of the house. Nor was there enough money to remove carpeting and install wooden floors. The latter is necessary because Mannion has difficulty walking on carpet and relies on a wheelchair to get around the two-story home he shares with his parents.

"We are so very grateful to those people who want to help Vincent and others like him," Brodeur said.