Puerto Rican Veteran Honored With Purple Heart
Spc. Arael Lopez-Lopez received the Purple Heart Monday for injuries received fighting in Afghanistan on his own birthday 10 months ago.
Jake Booth is an Army veteran and a former sheriff’s deputy from Collier County, Fla. He’s also the survivor of a 48-day coma. On the day he miraculously woke up, the man had one thing on his mind – Taco Bell tacos – and he wanted one badly.
Thanks to a lot of therapy and great medical treatment, Booth got his wish and about a month later he got to chow down on eight Taco Bell tacos.
“It was symbolic of the entire thing — more of a metaphor of him having woken up and being given a second chance at life,” his older brother, Jason Schwartz, told USA Today For The Win.
Booth fell in a coma in February, when he came down with bronchitis. At the tail end of his antibiotic regimen, the 35-year-old neglected to finish the dose, sending him to the hospital with pneumonia. While admitted, he had a heart attack and then fell into a coma.
After a grueling 48 days, with family and medical staff unsure if he’d ever wake up or suffer from permanent brain damage, Booth woke up, and although he struggled to speak, when he finally did, he uttered the words… “I want Taco Bell.”
Booth’s brother said it was the first thing he said.
It would take 22 days more for the father of two to eat any solid food, much less his favorite ½ Crunchy Taco.
Booth’s brother launched a GoFundMe page to help with medical costs and to defray the loss of Booth’s salary.
“I think a lot of people saw that video, and said, ‘The guy’s eating tacos, what does he need donations for?'” Schwartz told USA Today.
“But the truth is, he has got years of therapy ahead of him. We really didn’t get a whole lot off almost two million hits, which is crazy. We want to make sure that people know he is not in the clear.”
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