Wounded warriors need the help of loved ones and dedicated caregivers, and those “hidden heroes” who assisted injured service members need a hand, too.
Former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, herself the spouse of a wounded World War II hero, is tackling the challenge of helping the nation’s military caregivers with “Caring for Military Families,” an arm of her nonprofit foundation.
“In most cases they are unnoticed, because they are the hidden heroes,” Dole told Fox News’ Douglas Kennedy. “It’s the fathers, the mothers, spouses and loved ones of the wounded warriors.”
Dole, the former executive director of the American Red Cross and wife of onetime presidential nominee and former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, got the idea when her husband was being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., in 2010. In the beds around him were veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Elizabeth Dole witnessed firsthand not only their suffering, but the dedication of the staff that tended to them and the family members who loved them.
One such caregiver, Blair Hughes, tends to her husband Jonah, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2008, when a bomb exploded on a road outside of Baghdad.
“My husband, without a caregiver at home would be lost, and it would be really tragic what would happen to him,” Hughes told Fox News.
To watch this interview, click here.
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