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SALT LAKE CITY — Richard Norby's injuries are far worse than previously reported, and the effects will be lasting, but he and his family remain optimistic and plan to pay forward the kindnesses they've received.
Norby reached a significant milestone Monday night in his recovery from third-degree burns and severe shrapnel wounds. He sustained the injuries in the March 22 Brussels airport terrorist bombing, as he and his wife served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After getting out of another surgery, he ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some ice cream and a banana and drank some chocolate milk. The 66-year-old Lehi, Utah, man's appetite surprised his family and doctors at the University of Utah Burn Center.
"It doesn't get much better than that," Pam Norby said at a news conference Tuesday, as she, her son and a doctor described her husband's injuries in new detail and talked about his care and condition exactly four weeks after two suicide bombers killed 17 people at the Brussels airport and wounded her husband and three other Mormon missionaries.
"These are milestones we celebrate," she said. "We were all excited he was eating so well. We celebrate all those little landmarks that are huge for us."
Norby's injuries were severe.
The bombs caused second- and third-degree burns over 35 percent of his body, including his face, arms, trunk and legs, said Dr. Stephen Morris, medical director of the University of Utah Burn Center.
Third-degree burns, which sear the full thickness of skin, are the worst.
"He has required wound care for that and surgery, skin grafting," Morris said. "Most of those are resolved, but he also has some very significant shrapnel injuries, injuries to his lower extremities. He has trauma to soft tissue, muscle, skin as well as to his bones.
"At this point in time, that is taking longer to resolve."
The shrapnel wounds prompted Monday night's surgery, during which doctors removed damaged tissue in their ongoing effort to ward off infection.
"There will be lasting effects," Morris said, "and we don't know how extensive those will be and how significant those will be."
Norby will remain hospitalized for a number of weeks, with additional surgeries expected, Morris said. He is being treated by burn specialists, orthopedic surgeons and infectious disease specialists.
Morris said Norby is looking forward to walking for the first time since the attack, and the doctor described him as very optimistic.
Norby spent 26 days in a Belgian hospital, then was flown Saturday to Utah after doctors removed him from a ventilator and feeding tube. The Norbys were released Sunday from their service as LDS senior missionaries.
"It's been an interesting journey, this whole experience," Pam Norby said, "and it was something that was totally unexpected, as you can imagine. But we hope to make the best of it, and we feel that we are. My husband is optimistic, he's following the instructions of Dr. Morris, trying to eat.
"We're going to continue to push forward. Richard is going to do his part in being positive, in eating and sleeping well and doing his physical therapy."
The Norbys thanked the doctors and nurses both in Belgium at the U. as well as their family, friends and all who have wished them well and prayer on their behalf.
Jason Norby said his father clearly remembers the bombing.
"That's something he's working through right now," he said.
"It's a process," Pam Norby added.
Norby left his wife at 7:15 a.m. on March 22 to drive three missionaries to the airport. He met Elder Mason Wells and Elder Joseph Dresden Empey at a train station, where they had picked up Sister Fanny Clain, who was catching a 10 a.m. flight to her mission assignment in the United States.
The first bomb detonated at 7:58 a.m, as the four stood together in a check-in line in the airport's departure hall. At 8:17, Norby called his wife.
She talked Tuesday about trying to stay calm as her husband told her there had been an explosion and his leg was broken.
She never lost faith her husband would survive, she said. "I felt it would be OK, that whatever the OK was, 'at least you're alive, and that's enough.'"
Still, for a few hours after he called, she didn't know where emergency personnel had taken him.
"It was a hard wait," she said, "a very difficult wait, because when anyone you love is hurting, you want to be there. ... That was a hard wait."
The Norbys said their faith has been an anchor that helped them through the past month.
"We are grateful for the faith we have, the belief we have, the trust we have in our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ and that he is a God of miracles," Pam Norby said.
Both Norbys said the family feels compelled to return the love and kindnesses others have extended to them.
"This experience has been very overwhelming in a very positive sense," Jason Norby said. "There's a strong family need to pay it forward, to repay that. Even comments posted on Facebook, and emails that are sent — they help us, they help him adapt to our new normal."
Pam Norby said she looks forward to getting her husband home and getting on with life, spending time with families and doing for others.
"We've learned a lot from this experience," she said. "People have been so good, and we have learned from them and how they went about serving us. We want to take that and extend it to others."
Reports provided updates Tuesday about two of the other three injured missionaries.
Doctors have released Sister Fanny Clain, 20, of Réunion Island, from an Antwerp hospital, and she is resting in the Paris area with her aunt. She is expected to resume her mission at the Provo, Utah, Missionary Training Center as soon as early May.
Doctors performed skin grafts Monday on the right hand and left ankle of Mason Wells, 19, of Sandy, Utah. His family released a new photo of him smiling in his bed at University Hospital.
Empey was released from the hospital and returned to his Santa Clara, Utah, home on April 6.
Contributing: Sam Penrod
