Injured Marine moved from ICU

Lance Cpl. John McClellan, 20, who was wounded Sept. 26 while serving with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Echo Company in Haditha, Iraq, was moved Saturday from the Intensive Care Unit at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to a surgical floor for less severe cases.

McClellan’s parents, Connie and Carl McClellan, of Columbia, and their daughter, Jane McClellan, of Chicago, have been in Bethesda with their son since Sept. 30. His mother said doctors were able to release McClellan, a graduate of Hickman High School, from the ICU after removing the shunt from his head on Friday. The shunt is a tube that was integral to keeping McClellan’s brain from swelling by draining fluid.

After spending a week at the hospital, Connie McClellan said, they have become more aware of what families of injured soldiers go through.

She said that from the beginning, many people have asked what they can do to help, and while her response has been to pray; there are also two private organizations, the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, 825 College Blvd, Suite 102, PMB 609, Oceanside, CA 92057, and the Yellow Ribbon Fund, 10415 Armory Ave., Kensington, MD 20895, which rely on donations to provide airfare, lodging and income reimbursement to military families of wounded soldiers. These funds allow families to stay with their recovering Marines as long as is necessary.