Joseph Lynchard
For 35 years, Mattia and Joseph Lynchard enjoyed the adventure of raising their four children together. Like all parents, seeing their children mature into adults who wanted to give back to their community was a point of pride.
Their third child, Justin, chose to make his mark on the world as an American Soldier. After joining the U.S. Army in 2020, he served in the 101st Airborne Division. On September 28, 2022, while returning from pre-deployment training, Justin was gravely injured by a motorist. While his unit stopped in Mississippi, he was crossing the street at a rest stop before heading back to Fort Campbell. He was struck by a full-sized pickup truck and suffered a severe, often fatal, traumatic brain injury (TBI) known as a Grade 3 Diffuse Axonal Injury. Justin also sustained a broken leg and arm, crushed pelvis, collapsed lungs, ruptured diaphragm, facial and skull fractures.
Mattia and Joseph took on the unimaginable role of caregivers to their adult son. Their journey began living in a hotel across from the hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where Justin started his recovery after 18 days in a coma. They stayed with him for a total of 2 months until he was transferred to the Polytrauma Center at the James A Haley VA Hospital in Tampa, Florida. Four months later, when it was time for him to be discharged, his medical team thought he might have to live the rest of his life in a nursing facility, but his parents brought him home.
Justin’s care has required Mattia and Joseph, along with their daughter, Hannah, to work as a team. In fact, they hope to use the Dole Caregiver Fellowship to raise awareness about the experience of catastrophically wounded veterans who rely on more than one caregiver.
Mattia and Joseph explain that because of the extent of their son’s injuries, their journey has felt like a never-ending marathon. However, that does not mean it has not had its miracle moments. Mattia still remembers the day when Justin walked into the hospital, three years after his accident, where he once lay in a coma and thanked the staff that saved his life. That night, she stayed in the same hotel overlooking the hospital where Justin was fighting for his life, but this time, he was safely by her side.