Asher Klein

New Procedure Helps Wounded Vet Father a Child

In January 2014, Army Sgt. Thai Lee had just finished breakfast on his base in Pasab, Afghanistan. He was preparing his armor for another mission scouring the road for homemade bombs, when he felt the earth shake. He grabbed his rifle and ran to the scene of the attack. Several explosions later, Lee felt a searing heat between his legs. After a few steps, he collapsed and blacked out, NBC News reported.

Three days later at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Lee learned the extent of his injuries: he'd suffered a stroke and a neck wound that had partially paralyzed the left side of his body; he was hit in the stomach and lost part of his intestines; his penis had been severely cut; one testicle had been blown off, and the other crushed.

Hope arrived when Walter Reed urologist Col. Robert Dean told Lee about a breakthrough in fertility medicine that might help him father a child.

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