June 23, 2008 ·Robert Henline comes from a family with a long navy tradition, but he enlisted in the Army. In March 2007, the 36-year-old staff sergeant began his third deployment in Iraq, where he was a transportation specialist coordinating convoys of supplies and troops for the 82nd Airborne. Just a month later, Henline’s truck hit a roadside bomb.
“The vehicle was flipped upside-down about fifteen meters from the hole itself which was about five feet wide, two feet deep,” Henline said
Henline was burned over nearly 38 percent of his body. He was transported to the military’s combat burn housed inside Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Dr. Evan Renz, a surgeon and director of the burn center, supervises Henline’s care.
“In his case the wounds were extensive. It was a combination of challenges: the depth of injury, the extent of surface area involved and then finding donor tissue to cover,” said Renz.
Henline has what are called full thickness burns, meaning a majority of the skin was destroyed. Most of the burns are concentrated on his face, head and left arm. Doctors have had trouble getting skin graphs to take.
“As far as my head goes, it was burned down to the skull. We’ve had five unsuccessful surgeries to try to put skin on it. It’s been a year now with no skin on my head, but this last surgery a month ago, they took a full thickness from my stomach — basically I got a tummy tuck, which was kind of nice — but they took that full thickness and put it on my head and about 80 percent took,” said Henline.
Henline’s left arm was so badly burned that most of the muscle mass was destroyed. He spends a few hours everyday working with an occupational therapist at the burn unit trying to rebuild muscle.
The cast on Henline’s left wrist must be removed twice a week so therapists can work on his range of motion.
Henline says the recovery has been grueling. He now depends on his family in ways he never would have imagined
“My wife and I — our relationship, you know — there’s not a whole lot of husband and wife these days.”
“He can’t take a shower anymore by himself or cook dinner, so you’ve kind of lost that partner,” says Connie Henline, Robert's wife of sixteen years.
The Henline's have three children. In addition to caring for their needs, Connie spends part of her day cleaning and medicating her husband’s wounds. She says it is difficult to be a mother, nurse and a wife. She tries to carve out personal time for her marriage and her own mental health.
“I go to a wife support group with the other burn wives. My oldest daughter is old enough so she will babysit for us so that we can go to dinner together or do something together that’s not focused around his care.”
I has also been hard for Henline to adjust to his physical limitations.
“I can’t play catch with my son, and I can’t go shopping with the girls very easily, so there’s a lot of changes the kids have gotten more used to now, but still they wish the old dad was here which I understand. I wish he was here too,” says Robert Henline
His 10-year-old son Skylar says it was difficult at first to understand how badly his dad was injured.
“He looked um… like he didn’t look really good, um… mostly everyone cried.”
Brittney, age 16, is the oldest child in the family and she’s up front with her friends about her dad’s condition.
“I’m not ashamed, but, I mean, he’s my dad and, like, things happen, and we’re all military — or a lot of my friends — so they’re understanding.”
Henline is still drawing a paycheck from the Army, but Connie had to quit her job to take care of her husband. He has collected some benefits from injuries related to burns on his face and his head, but Connie complains he does not qualify for some benefits related to his arm injuries.
“They’re not eligible for the same benefits as amputees are because they haven’t lost a limb, but in my husband’s case he lost the use of his left arm, so, whether it’s there or not there, he can’t use it.”
Henline says that some days are more difficult than others, but he’s glad to be alive.
“I watched my daughter go to prom last week. She looked beautiful. You know it was a really nice moment that I could have missed.”
As for Connie and the children – they say everyday with him is truly a gift.
