My brother lost his foot at the ankle in a motorcycle wreck and when he woke up in the hospital after the surgery he looked at us and said "well shit. I'm not as tall as I used to be." We thought it was the anaesthesia and said "what do you mean?" He said "I'm not as tall as I was. I'm a foot shorter!"
He ended up having his leg amputated almost to his hip because the first surgeon screwed up. He was told he'd probably never walk again without a walker and wouldn't be able to work. I took him to the Social Security office in a wheelchair to file for disability, but they told him he could still do office work sitting down so they denied his claim, even with a stack of Dr reports.
That pissed him off so he got a mechanical leg, learned how to use it and was playing football, climbing ladders, and back on a motorcycle in less than a year!
He died in a car wreck a couple years later on his way to kick the shit out of a guy that was beating his girlfriend and holding her prisoner basically. Not my brother's girlfriend, the asshole guy. She ended up staying with the asshole anyway so my brother died for nothing, but that's the kind of guy he was.
Well, replying after this story is hard, so I'll just thank you VERY MUCH for sharing what - I can only imagine - must be a tough topic for you, I really appreciated it... But please don't ever say again that your brother died for nothing. It may look like it was in vain, I know, but he left his example for you, for me and everyone who knew him. His attitude, his sacrifice will affect people in ways that we can't even conceive! Sorry, I am prosy and banal, but I just love seeing that superheroes really exist.
He was 18 years older than me and when I was about 10 a car load of teenagers kept driving past where I was playing and yelling things at me and swerving like they were going to drive over the curb to hit me. My brother grabbed a length of logging chain and waited behind a tree until they came back. When the car came down the street again he jumped out in front of it, causing the driver to screech to a stop, and began just beating the hood with the chain like a maniac. He then went to the driver's door, opened it, grabbed the driver and started pulling him out.
This is when he noticed it was a car load of old people in a similar car! Oops.
That pissed him off so he got a mechanical leg, learned how to use it and was playing football, climbing ladders, and back on a motorcycle in less than a year!
This is when he noticed it was a car load of old people in a similar car! Oops.