LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A Las Vegas veteran was welcomed to his new community where he is expected to be gifted a specially adapted home by a nonprofit organization after he was injured while serving in Afghanistan.
In 2013, Navy veteran Adrian Walker was deployed with Marine Attack Squadron VMA-231 to Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
"In Afghanistan, I noticed I started getting drop foot. I couldn't pick up my foot. I would always tell my guys my legs feel like they are going to explode," Walker said.
When he returned from his deployment, he underwent several surgeries and eventually had both of his legs amputated below the knee.
"Unfortunately, it was just kind of downhill from there," Walker said.
The sailor was unable to return to combat and was medically retired.
"When you first become an amputee, you don't get your legs for months, you're in a wheelchair," Walker said. "That perspective from walking around for 25 years, 26 years, and the way I am used to walking, and then all of a sudden I am wheelchair bound for two years, three years, four years, and you start to realize this isn't going to change."
The injured veteran said it led him to experience extreme depression.
"I feel less than everybody should feel like they should be able to do things for themselves," he explained. "Small things like going to the bathroom where I have to push myself onto the toilet or climb over the tub to get in the shower."
Soon, Walker and his family will be given a new start in a new home through "Homes for Our Troops."
The nonprofit will begin building Walker's home with 40 special adaptations, including a kitchen with pull-down shelving, lowered countertops, wide doorways for wheelchair access and a roll-in shower.
"I would say that anyone that is dealing with limb loss or mental problems, find a good support system, find people that are good to you, surround yourself with a good support and look for that ladder, look for that rope and grab on and hold."
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