Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dec. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Joseph “Joey” Parli was a young Army military police detention specialist, or MP, on a motorcycle ride when a drunk driver ran over him near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. The driver fled the scene and Joey was left for emergency responders to find.
“Long story short, I was taken to Madigan Hospital,” he said. “And the Army told my parents they needed to fly out. I was pretty much on my deathbed, then.”
“I lost 18 liters of blood through my colon and intestine, and they had to give me a colostomy bag,” he said. “But I guess the hardest part was just the mental fight. You felt really alone in the soldier recovery unit.”
The Parlis rushed to their son’s bedside and waited for 10 nerve-wracking days as Joey remained in a medical coma. But then, slowly, a miracle took hold. Joey survived, but with grievous injuries concentrated on his torso.
“It was good seeing them,” he said, “because I woke up in the hospital like, ‘Why the heck am I in here?’”
“They became a good source of strength for me for that two-year period.”
Joey relied on his parents for both day-to-day assistance and for support. “They stood up for me in hospitals when I couldn’t stand up for myself literally and metaphorically,” he said.
“They helped me with wound care ‘cause I had a colostomy bag, and they just helped with emotional support. My dad would even go to different coffee shops in the area. He gave them my medicine that I had to take and had them put it in a coffee, a Frappuccino or a blended coffee, and bring it back so I could drink it. It was nasty medicine.”
Joey’s parents and his aunt stayed at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army Fisher House and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System Fisher House while supporting him.
Now, Joey is recently married. He’s close to completing a sports management degree, and he’s managed to work past some of his former rehabilitation needs, like the colostomy bag.
He still has daily struggles but says, “Life is looking better than it did a couple years ago.”
That support would have been much harder for the family if not for Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles program, which covered the cost of flights when Joey’s parents needed to return home temporarily.
Using donated frequent flyer miles and cash donations, Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles program purchases round trip airfare for wounded, injured, and ill service members and family members during authorized medical events.
- Joey Parli recovers in a hospital bed
- Joey Parli and his wife