A soldier's heart saves another life - Hartville mother describes journey to U.S. base to see injured son one last time

 

Published Aug. 3, 2005
By Bill Lilley and Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

HARTVILLE

Michele Barnett lay her head on the chest of her son Saturday morning as he was being prepped for the operating room at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

She knew that this was not going to be an operation to save him.

His war-ravaged body was not going to survive.

So, Army Sgt. Jeremy Barnett, a 27-year-old who specialized in saving the lives of his Army teammates in Iraq while serving as a forward observer had but one last chance to save another life.

``I listened to his heart beat,'' Michele Barnett said, ``and I knew that his heart would continue to beat. It was a combination of sorrow and joy at the same time.''

His loved ones had left for Germany on Thursday.

And they spent all day Friday and Saturday morning with him before the life-sustaining ventilator was turned off.

``I bathed my son,'' Michele Barnett said. ``I escorted him to the doors of the operating room.''

Barnett's heart was transplanted into a 51-year-old European.

``He gave his life twice,'' his mother said. ``Once for his country and once for another human being.

``He did what a lot of us never have enough guts to do.

``Our son's heart is beating in this person's body so that they can live. It was my son's choice to be an organ donor and I was never more proud of my son -- he was truly a hero,'' she said. ``He was more of a man than I will ever meet the rest of my life.''

Soldier remembered

Members of the Barnett family reunited Tuesday morning at Michele Barnett's home in Hartville -- where she moved a year ago after becoming a registered nurse at Aultman Hospital -- to express their love and admiration for a fallen son and brother.

They also expressed gratitude to the U.S. Army for the medical treatment Jeremy Barnett received and the emotional treatment they were given.

``The Army and the Fisher House are just super,'' said Jeremy's father, Dave Barnett of Mineral City. ``Anything you needed, they got it there.'' That, however, is now little consolation to the members of a blended family who lost a person they love and admire.

Jeremy Barnett was one of four children Dave and Michele Barnett adopted while they were married and living in Mineral City.

Jeremy, who was born in Ohio, was the only American-born offspring. Daughters Natalie and Rebecca were born in Korea and Emily in Russia.

Jeremy grew up like most any boy in the rural area of Tuscarawas County.

``He loved the outdoors, he loved to hunt and fish and we also went to movies together,'' 23-year-old Natalie Barnett said. ``He would read a lot, but mostly he loved being outdoors.''

Dave Barnett remembered another quality: ``He could take a tense situation and turn it into laughter... Jeremy could make you laugh, no matter what the situation was.''

Jeremy attended Sandy Valley High School, and then graduated from Warren Harding High School in 1999.

He enlisted in the Navy and served four years on the aircraft carrier George Washington.

When he came home to Mineral City, a village of less than 900, he couldn't find a job.

Army was his choice

``Things were slow,'' his father said. ``When he started to talk about going back to the service, I tried to talk him into going back to the Navy.

``He said he didn't like spending six months at sea. He told me, `Go into work some morning and have them tell you that you won't be going home for six months.'

``Jeremy did not want to go back on a ship. He wanted to be on land so he went into the Army.''

He enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas where he met his wife, Stephanie. They were married there last fall.

Stephanie Barnett, a mother of two who is a member of the Texas National Guard, has been overwhelmed with tragedy. Her mother died recently and her funeral is this weekend.

Jeremy was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood and was deployed to Iraq six months ago. He had six months yet to serve before he could come home again.

Always a volunteer

``Jeremy loved his job -- he went ahead and spotted artillery and airstrikes and would call them in to protect the rest of his team and save lives,'' Dave Barnett said. ``I kept telling him, `Do not volunteer for anything! Do not put your hand up!' But that wasn't Jeremy. He volunteered to help all the time.''

Jeremy Barnett had a day off last Wednesday. But another company needed help on a patrol. And as he always did, Jeremy volunteered.

``It didn't surprise me at all that he had volunteered,'' Natalie Barnett said. ``The Army trains them to think of the many and not the one and Jeremy was volunteering for extra duty all the time. That was the mind-set he had and he loved his job.''

And then came the explosion.

``No one seems to know exactly what happened,'' his father said. ``I've heard he stepped out of his Humvee and it happened.''

He apparently stepped on a land mine.

He was severely injured and flown to the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Dave Barnett was at work Wednesday morning when he got the call every parent dreads.

``When the guy who answered the phone said it was the Army, I knew it was bad,'' he said.

The Army provided emergency passports for the Barnett family and took care of travel expenses for Dave Barnett, Michele Barnett and Stephanie Barnett.

Angie Pendleton, Dave Barnett's fiancee, and Natalie Barnett also flew to Germany. ``We had a liaison assigned to us as a family in a crisis situation,'' Michele Barnett said. ``Everything we needed was there. They went above and beyond.''

Although Jeremy Barnett was injured too badly to respond, the Barnett family was grateful to have had the opportunity to spend time with him.

``When I first walked into the hospital room I was in the nurse mode,'' Michele Barnett said. ``I checked pulses and all the equipment. Everything we have at the hospital (Aultman Hospital)... they have have over there. It was great.

``Then the mom mode came in,'' she said. ``I just couldn't leave him.''

Michele Barnett said she will always be grateful for being allowed to keep a vigil with her son over his final two days.

``It was a life-changing event,'' she said.

Dave Barnett said his son's body is scheduled to be flown home Thursday. Calling hours will be Sunday. The funeral will be Monday. Finefrock-Gordon Funeral Home at 266 N. Main St. in Magnolia is handling arrangements.

``Until it hits home, you don't know how bad it is, how much it hurts,'' Dave Barnett said. ``People need to realize that every time they read about a serviceman getting hurt or killed.

``We all take for granted what they are doing, all the men and women who are dying over there. I'm asking people whenever you see a person in uniform to stop them and shake their hand and tell them you appreciate what they are doing.

``I'm very proud of Jeremy,'' his father said. ``But the purple heart that he received is something I never wanted to see him get.''