Brandon Pelletier, a turret gunner who served in the Iraq war, recalled his own recovery in 2008, not long after an improvised explosive device discharged under his Humvee, crushing his right arm and leaving it paralyzed.
"I was in some dark places in my rehab," said Pelletier, 26, who also suffers from a traumatic brain injury that requires him to sleep near a seizure-sensing dog.