Sergeant First Class Marcus Jackson served 24 years in the US Army as a combat medic where he was deployed 4 times, 2 of them being combat tours. While in-country on Desert Storm, Marcus was knelt down assisting a patient when the local forces interpreter assigned to his unit struck him in the back of the head with the butt-stock of a rifle.
The lights went out immediately and he woke up with a fractured C4/C5, herniated C6/C7, and a Traumatic Brain Injury. He rehabbed to stay active duty but re-injured his neck while attempting to lift a patient as he was falling to the ground. Marcus avoided surgery the first time but couldn’t after his second injury, leading to a full fusion of the c-spine from his posterior, and a 6 inch titanium plate in his back. Marcus then ended up having to have a second surgery after getting rear ended in a car accident.
Marcus never let this get him down and as he says, pain is only temporary. Marcus today works as a personal trainer and a CPR instructor, and has a wife, two kids and two grandkids.
