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This Fee was Paid in Full

The young man walked into the laser counselor's office and identified himself as a former high school classmate of the surgeon's son, perhaps thinking that a little name-dropping might get him a couple hundred off the bill. The counselor noticed that his handshake was a little feeble, but said nothing during their session. Later, as they were walking out, she asked him if his hand was okay.

It was getting better, he assured her, confiding that this was a great time to have laser vision surgery because he was on a break from his job. She asked what he did for a living. Had she not asked she never would have heard the rest of his story.

All through high school he knew he wanted to join the Army, and he enlisted when he graduated. A few months later, he got his papers to go overseas and rushed home to marry his high school sweetheart. Once in Iraq he patrolled the slums of Baghdad on good days, the slums of Sadr City on bad ones.

One dark night, during a lights-off patrol, a pair of booby-trapped 105 mm Howitzer shells blew up his Humvee, leaving 15 pieces of shrapnel, some the size of baseballs, in his neck and right arm. His jugular vein was severed; his arm's tendons were flapping in the breeze. He was airlifted to Germany where the doctors wanted to remove the arm, but he wouldn't let them.

A Long Road to Recovery

At Walter Reed, he had 15 operations to reconstruct his arm. He was given high-tech rubber band implants to replace his tendons, and nerve transplants from his leg to restore his sensation. While in the hospital he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, all before his 19th birthday.

He had a break now while he finished recuperating, and thought he would have his eyes fixed before flying back to rejoin his squad.

Our hero would have been out the door without our knowing what happened to him had she not asked about his hand. Getting his arm nearly blown was almost an afterthought to him, just part of the job, a frustration that was temporarily keeping him away from his work.

She did not hesitate, nor did she ask her boss for permission. She did not need to. She took back his paperwork and crossed out the fee for surgery and wrote above it a big fat zero. You have already paid, she told him. Thank you.