Daily activities like saying good morning and brushing teeth usually don't make it on most people's to-do lists. But these everyday events became a struggle for Hanford native Anthony Dominguez to remember after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2007.

He's among thousands of soldiers who are coping with the lasting effects of an injury that has become a trademark of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dominguez, 48, left Hanford in 2006 and spent 14 months in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army and National Guard, narrowly avoiding bullets and rocket propelled grenades -- yet returned to the United States seemingly unscathed.

"That's why they call this the silent killer because at first glance we look just like everybody else," he said.

When Dominguez returned from Afghanistan and reported to Fort Carson, Colo. in June 2007, he had no apparent injuries, but his wife, Sylvia, grew increasingly worried.

"I noticed that he really couldn't speak and would stutter and I didn't know what he was saying," she said.

As time progressed, other symptoms of a traumatic brain injury began to show -- lasting reminders of one of the earth-shaking explosions Dominguez felt in Afghanistan.

Throughout the day he would lose his balance and fall down. 

He began relying on his wife's assistance to do basic things like shower and shave.

"Just regular stuff I couldn't do," he said. "My hands weren't doing what my brain was telling them to."

Every morning Dominguez relied on a list to establish a daily routine that included everything from drinking coffee to checking e-mail.

He also began having disassociative episodes and would get lost driving home from work.

It got to the point where he could no longer drive and could only walk with a cane.

"A normal day was to get out of bed and fall down," he said.

He and his family struggled for more than a year through treatment programs until he was accepted into a privately funded rehabilitation center in Texas known as Project Victory.

Dominguez spent six weeks at the center, where his condition rapidly improved. He received cutting-edge medical treatments and therapies including memory cognition training, visual acuity treatment and he was taught adaptive strategies to cope with his impaired mobility.

During his first week in the program, Dominguez began walking without the use of a cane -- something he had not been able to do for 18 months.

His speech has also dramatically improved and is no longer slurred.

"Just a month ago you wouldn't think you were talking to the same person," he said on Sept. 3.

Dominguez graduated from the rehabilitation center on Sept. 11 and returned to his home in Colorado, where he lives with his wife and their 16-year-old daughter, Natalia.

"Every day is gonna be a challenge, but at least we know what's wrong and we've been able to work through it," Sylvia said.

Dominguez moved from Tulare to Hanford in 1991 and worked as a maintenance mechanic for Del Monte Foods Co. before he joined the National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan.

He is now non-medically retired and said he hopes to make continued progress on what began at Project Victory.

"I'm just looking forward to getting back to my wife and my daughter, my dog and my horse and enjoy what's left of this life," Dominguez said.

This reporter can be reached at 583-2427.

(Sept. 14, 2009)