It was morning on September 9, 2012 when Corporal Alan Fernandez was hit by an hidden improvised explosive device (IED). His commander, Sgt. Lee Davidson, also in the vehicle, died.
Fernandez survived but with massive injuries which required more than two years of intensive rehabilitation. At 33 years old, after all the surgeries, all the rehab, he was faced with a monumental decision. Should he ask his doctors to amputate his still grievously deformed leg?
The blast happened when Fernandez and Davidson were driving along a dirt road in the Nahr-e Saraj district of the Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The two men had been assigned to a police advisory team and were driving the last Ridgeback with the Afghan Uniform Police. A team of American bomb-expert engineers had cleared the road about an hour before. But somehow, someone slipped a new IED into the hidden crevasses along the road. As the two men drove by it blew with ferocious intensity, killing Davidson and changing Fernandez’s life forever.
Sgt. Lee Davidson was the 427th member of the UK forces to have died in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. News at the time focused on Davidson whose wife was seven months pregnant. Fernandez, who has a wife and two daughters, returned to England to begin healing from his devastating wounds.
“It broke my right fibia and tibia, with the tibia coming out through the skin. My left ankle was shattered, I’d also had a calcaneus fracture under my heel, my back was broken, my left shoulder was dislocated, my left hand was broken, as was my coccyx, and I had tissue damage, ” said Fernandez.
Fernandez was treated at the Defense Medical Rehabilitation Center at Headley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey. There he spent months in rehabilitation learning how to walk and engage in everyday activities again.
“Headley Court was fantastic—I wouldn’t have been walking so quickly if it wasn’t for them—and the regimental association, ” Fernandez said. “You don’t realize how much support there is out there until you are injured—I’ve been overwhelmed.”
Despite the advances he has made, Fernandez was frustrated with his lack of movement and walking with a stick. He would often sit at home, depressed, not taking part in social activities.
“I found it quite hard to adapt to a civilian life and had job after job after job. I didn’t fit. It just didn’t feel right, ” Fernandez said. “I still get angry when I’m in pain and I know I’ll never be back to how I was. It frustrates me not being able to do what I could do.”
Two years down the line, Fernandez made a momentous and courageous decision. He asked the doctors to take off his leg.
Why? Because, Fernandez said, amputee-soldiers seemed to be able to return to an active lifestyle faster than soldiers with extensive leg injuries. His injuries forced him to use a walking stick and prevented him from participating in many active physical activities including running. Amputees had no such limitations.
“Two years on [my leg] still doesn’t work very well. Walking on it is a pain. I have good days and bad days, but I think it’s time, ” Fernandez said. “I’ve seen lads who were in at the same time as me who lost limbs and were running round—but I can’t. And amputees are fantastic when you see them doing Paralympic sport.”
Fernandez hopes the amputation of his left foot and ankle, which is currently held together by metal pins, will help him run again. His wife, Gemma, and two daughters, Leah and Allana, nine and seven, support his decision.
“My wife thinks it’s the best thing to do because I will be more active, ” Fernandez says. “And the kids are behind it because they think their dad’s gonna have a foot like Iron Man.”
