ALGER — While volunteering to be a civilian employee of the Department of Army, Dan Dvonch of Alger was injured in Baghdad, Iraq, during a routine job.

Dvonch was working on a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, lifting the frame with three other men when one man got hurt. When that man let go, it caused the frame of the vehicle to fall on Dvonch.

“I held it as hard I could, but it pinned me against the truck,” Dvonch said. “It compressed my spine, blew out my disc.”

As a result of the injury, Dvonch had to have a surgical procedure completed called a lumbar spinal fusion, which included a bone graph from his pelvic bone onto his vertebrae, and replacing his ruptured disc with one made of carbon fiber. But because of Dvonch’s muscle spasms from his injuries, it took four months of MRIs and X-rays to get a clear enough picture to diagnose and decide on a treatment plan.

“All the time I’ve been going to the doctors, I’ve been getting injections, spinal epidurals, shots in my lower back every other week, every week,” Dvonch said. “They didn’t know what to do. It was a waiting game between MRIs.”

But even with the painmedicine injections, Dvonch said his back didn’t feel any better.

“Basically, I could walk a little bit better, but it wouldn’t take the pain away,” he said. “I would still have to walk with a cane or whatever, would always have to have some sort of assist so I wouldn’t fall, because if I coughed or anything from the nerves being pinched so bad I’d fall flat.”

Once an MRI came out clear enough for a diagnosis, Dvonch said the surgeon knew right away that he needed surgery even though the image still didn’t completely show the extent of Dvonch’s injury.

“He told me when he opened my back up he couldn’t believe how bad it was,” Dvonch said.

After having surgery June 26, Dvonch had to endure a four-hour long ambulance ride home July 1. He will begin physical therapy in three months, but with his wife, Tracy, being six months pregnant, Dvonch is worried he won’t be able to hold his first child when he or she is born because of his current 2-pound weight restriction.

However, with the nine-month recovery period, his restrictions and physical ailments could change as time goes on.

“I still do (shake), but they said maybe when the swelling goes down it would go away, but they don’t know,” Dvonch said.

After taking a weeklong course and an exam to be certified to work on the MRAP vehicles, Dvonch was deployed as a civilian employee with the troops. He then spent roughly two years helping soldiers with their vehicles, working 12-hour shifts seven days per week.

“To help support our troops and the freedom we get every day,” Dvonch said of the reason he volunteered for the job. “It was scary when I first knew I was going to go. There’s a lot of things you have here that you think are basic essentials that you don’t have there.”

While volunteering for different jobs while in Balad and Baghdad, Dvonch said it was really difficult seeing the young soldiers he became friends with get injured or killed. But he said that his time there with the Army also made him appreciate everything he has at home, and that he doesn’t take any of it for granted anymore.

“Understanding how the armed services and armed forces give us the freedom to have daily things,” he said. “People take a lot of things for granted. You just have to step back and take a look at why you have those things — it’s from the veterans and everybody who gave us our freedom.”

Dvonch was a civilian volunteer employed through the Department of Army. The department employs civilians in permanent, temporary or seasonal positions that follow all Army regulations. Visit www.cpol.army.mil for more information.

“These are programs that are set up, utilized that a lot of people don’t know,” Dvonch said. “You’re the same government employee doing the same thing their soldier would do in their motor pool. You give your 110 percent just like they give their 110 percent.”

And it is something that Dvonch would consider doing again if the doctors give him the OK.

“Probably at a later point — not at this time in my life,” he said.

Dvonch is formerly of Waltz, Mich., and currently resides in Alger with his wife, Tracy. He is on a military leave of absence from his job at Home Depot of West Branch.