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The Marine reservist’s thigh has a large, horseshoe-shaped scar where the shrapnel hit him. Long red scars from his surgeries run almost the length of both sides of his leg.
They resemble railroad tracks because of the 76 surgical staples used to close the wound.
"Two weeks ago I could just about bend my leg 90 degrees," Celotto said. "And I wasn’t supposed to be walking unsupported until February."
He praises VA therapist Margaret Ippolito as he bends his leg completely, able to touch his heel to his wounded thigh.
"We work with weights for strength, and he does stretches for flexibility," Ippolito said.
Celotto is one of more than 10,000 U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq since combat operations began nearly two years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, as of Jan. 14 10,372 soldiers had been wounded. Of that number, 5,396 were wounded badly enough that they could not return to duty.
Those severely-wounded soldiers are being admitted into facilities like the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washignton, D.C and local VA medical centers. In the last year, the number of wounded soldiers increased dramatically: In the first eight months of the war, 2,076 soldiers were injured. In the 14 months since, 8,296 were injured.
Between September 2003 and September 2004, 468 of Connecticut’s Iraq war veterans enrolled for clinical services, said Susan Dicker, a nursing case manager with the VA. These can cover orthopedic care, dermatology, an eye clinic, pain care and, in some instances, neurosurgery.
She said the VA expects the numbers enrolled in October and November to total more than 70 when officially tallied.
"I suspect we’ll keep getting somewhat larger and larger numbers, but we’ll be able to handle it," she said.
Celotto said the care he has received at the West Haven VA is typical of that he received from almost the instant he was hit.
"Navy medics were on me in about 30 seconds," he said. "If I had been 10 years older or if that tourniquet had been on for 10 more minutes, I could have lost my leg.
"And I lost two pints of blood," he said. "If I had been out in the field ..
He had two operations in the first 12 hours. He was put on the phone with his family within five hours, though they had been alerted within two.
He spent time in a hospital in Germany before coming back to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Celotto’s experience is typical of wounded U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a Dec. 2004 study by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study revealed that only 10 percent of those wounded in combat in Iraq are dying, opposed to 24 percent in Vietnam and 30 percent in World War II.
The study’s suggested reason for the shrinking mortality rate is improved medical care in the field, like the care Celotto received.
The military is deploying mobile medical teams closer to the fighting, called "Forward Surgical Teams."
Injured soldiers like Celotto are stabilized in the field by the FST personnel and quickly transported to Combat Support Hospitals. There are two such facilities in Iraq. Soldiers are treated at the CSH facility and sent to U.S. medical hospitals in Germany or the United States.
According to the Journal of Medicine’s study, the average length of time from the Iraqi battlefield to a medical facility in the United States is four days. In Vietnam the average was 45 days.
The Journal of Medicine report also noted that military doctors are dealing with the type of injury Celotto suffered more frequently. Blast and shrapnel injuries from "improvised explosive devices" are causing more injuries than gunshots in Iraq. Limb injuries like Celotto’s are particularly prevalent, according to the Journal of Medicine’s report.
"The most seriously injured are still at Bethesda or Walter Reed Army Hospital," said Nancy Petry, public affairs director for the veterans’ benefits unit in Newington. "When either of them have a Connecticut soldier, they’ll contact us and let us know that he’s there and what he will need."
While at Bethesda, Celotto and his family even had a visit from his top boss.
"President Bush met with everyone on the floor that day," he said. "He thanked my family for their sacrifice. And he signed my Purple Heart certificate."
But he also formed friendships with men who had been horribly wounded.
"When I was wounded I was asking, ‘Why me?’ " he said. "When I went there I changed to ‘Why were they so badly hurt? Why do I get to go home?’"
Celotto aspires to join the U.S. Naval Academy and become a Marine fighter pilot. He said the Marines are keeping him on active duty until his treatment is completed so he will not have to pay.
"Marines take care of their own."
When hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in the activation of National Guard and Reserve units throughout the state, the Veterans Affairs health care system in Connecticut revved up to prepare for when the soldiers, sailors and airmen would begin to return home.
West Haven has the state’s only in-patient veterans’ hospital, though Celotto is an outpatient.
The former hospital on what is called the Newington campus serves as an outpatient-treatment clinic.
"When veterans come back they need to be educated as to the benefits they are entitled to when they re-enter civilian life," Dicker said.
"We also offer psychiatry, because many of them have suffered some traumatic stuff over there."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington said the influx of those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan nationally is small, accounting for 0.6 percent of the more than 5 million veterans who use their services nationally.
The department’s press office did not return calls seeking information on the severity of injuries, the most prevalent types they have seen, or whether post-traumatic stress disorder has been seen in significant numbers.
Dicker said soldiers are supposed to be given routine dental and physical exams before demobilizing, though many just want to get home rather than stick around for an appointment on a military base in the Middle East, Massachusetts or somewhere in between.
"But we want them to go on the record, so we give them a complete physical when they come home," Dicker said. She said that even if soldiers opt for civilian primary care, it still is important to have a record with the VA so they would be able to get free treatment for any service-related problems that might manifest themselves.
A 2003 graduate of Morgan High School, Celotto said his doctors are predicting full recovery. He will try for an appointment to Annapolis this fall, but said he might have to wait until 2006.
"That’s why I went into the Reserves," he said. "I wanted to learn to take orders before I start giving them as an officer."
Michael Gannon can be reached at mgannon@nhregister.com, or at (203) 789-5710.
