Amputee Sean’s brave battle to get back to duty
He lost his right leg in landmine explosion
A mum who almost lost her soldier son in a landmine explosion in Afghanistan has spoken of her pride at seeing him return to duty.
Lynne Carruthers says her world came crashing down when her son Sean Wiseman lost his right leg in a roadside attack which almost killed him.
Now the brave fusilier is back in the job he loves.
He has just finished a tour of duty in Kenya with his regiment.
Lynne 50, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, said: “I don’t think any mum could be prouder. Sean has not only recovered but fought amazingly hard to win his place back in the job he loves.
“The day he was injured stays with me forever.
“As soon as I put the key in my door on returning from work that day I knew something was terribly wrong.
“My daughter Hannah stepped out of her bedroom and said: ‘There is a man in the living room waiting to see you, mum. I have been told to stay in my room.”
It could only be one thing. Sean was serving in Afghanistan and this was the moment she had dreaded.
“As I walked into the living room an army officer stepped forward to speak.
“But before he could I cried out: ‘Just tell me my son is not dead. Please.’ ”
Sean had been injured and had been saved by medics on the spot.
“Those were the words I wanted to hear,” Lynne continued. “No matter how much they grow up or how brave they become the umbilical cord is never really cut.”
Sean, just 18 at the time, had been prevented from bleeding to death at the scene.
He had only been in Helmand a few months with his 2 Scots battalion and survived an explosion just two weeks earlier.
Lynne had signed the permission form to allow Sean to sign up at 16.
The road back to becoming a serving soldier with one leg has been a tough battle even for the fusilier who had been desperate to become a soldier since he was at school.
Sean recovered thanks to medics in Afghanistan, his team and and the military ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
As he lay wired up to
I would sign his army papers again
monitors in his bed Lynne, a former physiotherapy assistant, said: “I knew right away with holes blasted in his two legs he would be lucky to keep both.
“All he could say through morphine-induced pain relief was: ‘Tell the lads I am coming back shortly. Just stitch me up and I’ll be back in Afghanistan shortly.’
“He was desperate to get back to his unit but I could see months or even years of recovery ahead.”
Lynne was to keep a bedside vigil which was to last five months. She only travelled back to family in Scotland at the weekends.
Sean’s recovery was to be a rollercoaster where progress was followed by setbacks.
Infection set in to his wounded right leg and eventually he gave surgeons the goahead to amputate it. He faced years of rehabilitation.
“Sean was fixated on getting back to his unit and knew a prosthetic leg was his best chance,” said Lynne.
“He then had to become superfit and prove he was worthy of a place.”
Determined to serve his country again Sean refused a medical discharge and made the grade.
The brave fusilier has just returned from his first posting overseas to Kenya.
It was a six- week drill in a sweltering temperature of 35C.
“Now I look at Sean and realise I have a son in a million,” Lynne smiles.
“Even after everything we have been through I would sign his army papers again.
“The army is a huge part of Sean’s life and I could never deny him that, ever.”