Fox News Digital spoke with a veteran of the United States Army who attributes his survival to his unshakeable belief in God.
San Antonio, Texas native and Purple Heart recipient JP Lane, an author, performer, and speaker, went through hell in Afghanistan.
According to the Purple Heart Foundation, JP Lane joined the military after witnessing the Twin Towers collapse in 2001.
He joined the Army as a Combat Engineer at age 20 in 2008, and he was sent to Afghanistan in 2010 to find IEDs.
He explained he was hit three times with explosions. The third of the three damaged him.
On assignment on July 2, 2011, a 200lb IED exploded. He was comatose for six weeks after the explosion. He lost four front teeth, both legs, an arm, his right middle finger, his pelvis, his spine, and everything else in his torso but his heart and the left lung to shrapnel. He endured 26 injuries and 28 operations.
Due to his severely injured legs, doctors told him he couldn’t utilize prostheses. He also learned that a tracheotomy would permanently impair his speech and singing.
After some time, he was sent back to the United States. Weeks later, he emerged from his coma at Walter Reed in Washington DC. He discovered he was without legs and wondered what the future held for him.
According to Lane, his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exacerbated the mental toll of this discovery.
The veteran said his suicidal thoughts were so constant that he had attempted suicide twelve times. Lane realized he needed help.
He realized he needed God to help him through this. He needed help since he lacked the strength to do this task alone.
He needed to lean on something bigger than himself, so he revisited his faith in God, who had given him the fortitude to endure and even found joy amid great adversity.
The charity group Semper Fi & America’s Fund was also a part of Lane’s effort to recover, and they generously gave the soldier the supplies he needed. He called It one of the finest organizations in the world.
