The oldest of the LDS missionaries injured in the Brussels Airport terrorist attacks nearly a month ago has finally returned to Utah.
Sixty-six-year-old Richard Norby of Lehi suffered severe burns to his head and neck as well as severe damage to his legs from shrapnel when a bomb exploded near him at the Brussels Airport in Belgium. Until last week, Norby had been receiving care in Belgium, but has finally returned home to Utah to continue receiving care at the University of Utah Hospital. Dr. Stephen Morris is the Medical Director of the University of Utah Burn Center.
“I anticipate that he will require other surgeries," he says. "We are including both the orthopedic surgeons, the infectious disease doctors, and ourselves as soft tissue specialists to help deal with those wounds.”
His wife, Pam Norby, says it’s been challenging but expressed deep gratitude to the many people who have been and will continue to help her husband heal.
“We just love them. It was a good part of a bad thing," she says. "And it continues to be so. And we’re just going to continue to push forward. Richard is going to do his part in being positive and eating and sleeping well and doing his physical therapy.”
The timetable for Norby’s recovery is still unclear. Dr. Morris says the severity of the injuries, as well as the effects of infection, have slowed progress. But he also says with these kinds of injuries every little improvement is a big deal.