On 6 December 2006, Simon and his team were on a rescue mission in Southern Basra, Iraq to recover a vehicle that had broken down in an area that was under fire. Due to the dusty condition, Simon had to stick his head out of the vehicle to direct the driver to safety. That was when he got shot in the face by a sniper.
His jaw was broken into four pieces and palate collapsed, causing him to suffocate. He had to hold his palate up to breathe while on route to the medical facilities in Basra Palace, where the doctors performed a tracheotomy* to help him breathe and put him into a drug-induced coma before he was transported back to Britain within 72 hours.
The commander of the recovery team from Leeds was admitted to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where surgeons performed an exploratory operation** to assess the damage and tried to come up with a reconstructive plan. The surgeons spent around 12 to 18 hours reconstructing his face to build a base platform so they could carry on with the reconstructive work.
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*Tracheotomy: a surgical procedure to create an opening at the front of the neck or windpipe to assist breathing
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**Exploratory operation: an operation for diagnostic purposes, without the intent of treating conditions
Background picture credit: Simon Brown
Over the past 10 years, Simon had undergone 25 operations to fix his injuries. The major issue from the damage was breathing through his nose and this had affected his sleep. The surgeons spent approximately six years reconstructing his nose, including taking cartilage from the back of his ears to rebuild the nostril, performing bone graft surgery by taking some bones from his hip to create the nose bridge and taking cartilage from his ribs to fix the septum.
Apart from facial injuries, Simon also lost his left eye and only has 20 percent vision in his right eye. He no longer has a sense of smell and still suffers from slight facial paralysis which prevents him from having full feelings on his face.
“I’m still a little self-conscious with the way I look, to be honest, but I was quite fortunate that I have a supportive community and a lot of people knew what happened to me and why it’d happened. They were very protective,” said Simon.
Simon now works for Blind Veterans UK as a memberships officer to help create new membership opportunities and offer support to veterans who are in need of assistance. He also volunteers at Help for Heroes as a Band of Brothers ambassador who supports injured personnel from the military.
Background picture credit: Blind Veterans UK