mycentraljersey.com: Injured veteran credits chiropractic with saving him from opioid addiction

7/10/2018

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SOMERVILLE — At just 19-years-old, Joseph Faro of Bridgewater was robbed of his lifelong dream in the blink of an eye.

He tries not to see it that way and, at 27 now, he is adjusting to life as a civilian, future accountant and fiancé.

It has been, and continues to be, a journey fraught with obstacles and pain. But Faro is nothing if not determined. It’s the trait that got him through difficult high school years, Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, and many months of surgeries and rehab after an IED explosion in Afghanistan in 2010. That grit also helped him kick an addiction to prescription painkillers that doctors in the Veterans Health Administration were all too eager to prescribe him.

In many ways, it’s understandable why doctors would dole out heavy-duty opioid painkillers to patients like Faro. The explosion shattered his skull, severed two arteries in his legs, punctured his right lung and nearly ripped off his left arm. Facilities like Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he woke up a week later, treat scores of wounded like Faro every day.

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