On October 6, 2016, Aaron Malone, a veteran Marine who served two combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, was involved in a tragic motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. Now, he needs help for his recovery.
Malone, who just got out of the Marine Corps roughly five months ago, is now in a minimally conscious state where he is not fully aware of his surroundings or people. He also has problems communicating.
While serving in Iraq, Malone was the platoon Sgt. for 1st platoon and as an E-4, he was in charge of over 20 Marines. Malone was also a 0341 mortar-man for 3/7 Lima company and held the billet as section leader for mortars.
Capt. Daniel Brennan, who served as a Platoon Commander and Executive Officer of Lima, said in a statement to American Military News, “He was a highly intelligent and skilled mortar man. He has a strong natural leadership ability and used that to shape Lima’s mortar section into a highly proficient and deadly unit. On several occasions, Lima relied on him to put first round effects on target in nearly impossible situations, and he came through every single time. His potential to do good is as limitless as his intelligence. He’s a tough guy and I’m sure that will show in his recovery.”
On Wednesday, David Malone, Aaron’s father told American Military News that Aaron had a breakthrough moment, a couple of hours of wakefulness. However, he doesn’t recognize people and wasn’t sure where he was. If he recovers it will be a long road back.
Aaron’s status is also on his GoFundMe page:
“Aaron has demonstrated cognitively mediated behavior, but it occurs inconsistently. He has followed simple commands, answered gesturally and verbally to yes/no questions, verbalized Intelligible responses, and demonstrated eye pursuit movement/sustained fixation that occurs in direct response to moving or salient stimuli. This places Aaron in a minimally conscious state. The time he can spend in this state can be weeks, months, even years. If he remains in this state for 5 years, he will never recover full awareness. He will need nursing care for the rest of his life. All that to say this: Aaron still needs your prayers. This is a serious injury. We have hope that he will recover but we have no guarantee of that. Even if he recovers, he may have suffered irreversible damage to his cognitive and/or speech abilities. We have no way of knowing at this point in time. The sooner he ‘wakes’ up, the better his prognosis.”
Aaron was rushed to the nearest trauma center following his accident. He was bleeding from the frontal lobe of the brain and had a shattered elbow.
Currently, Aaron is working towards his degree to become a dental hygienist and is enrolled in a local community college.
He went through a six hour surgery to fix his elbow, but still has to undergo physical, speech, and cognitive therapy and cannot do that until he wakes up fully.
Aaron is currently at Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, California. Malone joined the Marine Corps when he was 17 and served for four years.
Since the accident, Aaron’s family has had to leave his side and go back to work to keep up income. They are asking for help so that they can be by his side for his recovery and to help offset medical costs now and in the future.
Here is a link to Aaron Malone’s GoFundMe page for those that wish to donate to help with his recovery.
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