thedrifter
07-02-07, 07:30 AM
Healing close to home
West Coast’s first amputee clinic to expand this summer
By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : July 09, 2007
SAN DIEGO — The makeshift therapy room, built for aerobics and exercise classes at the Naval Medical Center here, bustled one morning with hope for some of the Iraq war’s wounded amputees.
Standing on a round balance board, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Daniel Jacobs twisted side to side as he bounced a 4-pound weighted ball off a springboard. A blast from a roadside bomb in Ramadi last year tore apart Jacobs’ Humvee, wounding the platoon corpsman’s infantry buddies and devastating his left leg, which was amputated last fall. Today, he stands tall on a new lightweight carbon-fiber prosthetic leg.
A leather baseball glove and a bat lay on a therapy bed, waiting for the 21-year-old to finish his morning therapy and meet some friends at a ball field.
“I want to get back to being a greenside corpsman. That’s my goal,” said Jacobs, who will soon be outfitted with a powered running leg. “I know I can do it. I’ve just got to wait my time.”
In one corner of the cramped space, Spc. Alroy Billiman posed in front of the mirrored wall, checking out the look and fit of his right shoulder and arm that boasted one of the newest high-tech prosthetics outfitted at the center.
Billiman, a 27-old infantryman, noticed that the powered myoelectric prosthetic arm, which features a lifelike, five-fingered hand and sensors embedded in the triceps area, was color-matched to his skin. “I can’t wait until it’s all put together,” he said.
“It was emotional when I got that arm,” Billiman added, pointing to his first prosthesis, which features a claw-type hand with pinchers and jointed wrist. For months after his Nov. 9 wounding, “I felt like I was missing something. When I put that arm on, I felt like I was a full person again.”
The two wounded men are among 16 or so amputees receiving care and undergoing rehabilitation at the military’s first amputee care center on the West Coast, housed in temporary space at the medical center’s fitness center. They are among the first wounded veterans seeing some of the modern, high-tech prosthetic limbs — bionic-like legs and arms with powered joints — available on the market.
More than 30 percent of amputees in Iraq or Afghanistan are West Coast-based Marines, sailors or soldiers, officials say, so the San Diego location puts high-level care closer to patients’ home stations, units and families.
And more changes are coming.
New center, broader focus
Later this summer, Navy medical officials will unveil the new Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center at its own building, one that will feature high-tech equipment and facilities, including a gait laboratory. Patients will get prosthetics that are designed, built and outfitted on site by an in-house staff supported by contracted companies that specialize in artificial limbs.
Of the 16 patients seen by Peter Harsch, the center’s chief prosthetist, 11 suffered lower-limb injuries. Four patients lost both their legs above the knee, and one Marine suffered the loss of a leg and most of his pelvis.
“He’s doing exceptionally well,” Harsch said. “He walks with an assisted device ... and we’re actually making him a running leg.”
Harsch, who has worked at Walter Reed and Brooke Army medical centers, arrived here last year. Unlike Walter Reed, where amputee and prosthetic care is handled under a sole-source contractor, he said he can tailor the prosthetic care for each patient here.
“I have free will to bring in who I believe is the best [based] on each patient,” he said. “So what we are doing is providing a very ‘boutique’ service.”
Navy medical officials “have allowed us to get the best here, and all of that relates to patient care,” Harsch said. “When they leave here, they have the highest level of rehabilitation care in prosthetics. For the rest of their life, they’re going to be amputees,” cared for by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ system or the private sector.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped advance high-tech devices, including bionic ankles, running legs and computerized “power” knees that help propel the user up hills and stairs. “It generates monies to technologies to allow these guys to do what they’re doing,” Harsch said.
With amputee rehabilitation, “everything starts with a good-fitting limb,” he noted. “It doesn’t matter what kind of [occupational therapy] you have. It doesn’t matter what kind of [physical therapy] you have. ... If your prosthesis isn’t fitting correctly, nothing else goes.”
The care that amputees receive here isn’t just about rehabilitating limbs, but restoring lives.
“It’s more than just getting amputees on their feet — it’s about giving them hope of a fuller life,” Harsch said. “Life might not be better. It might not be worse. It’s just going to be different. We have to be sure our responsibility is to give them the tools and this benchmark care so for the rest of their lives, they will be able to be the best they can with what they have.”
Road to recovery
Jacobs, who hails from Steamboat Springs, Colo., spends his weekday mornings at the center. He awaits another surgery to help restore more mobility in his injured ankle. He’s had multiple surgeries — “thirty-something. I don’t know the exact number. You lose count after a while,” he said.
The platoon corpsman was on patrol with members of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, on Feb. 25, 2006, when the roadside bomb did its damage. After three months of care and surgeries at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he requested transfer to San Diego to be closer to his unit and family, especially his mother, who was battling cancer. Last fall, after research and discussions with surgeons, the young sailor decided to have his leg amputated.
The prosthetic leg boasted autographs from singers Stevie Nicks and Craig Morgan. It’ll become a keepsake once he’s outfitted with a new, high-tech leg made with a better-fitting socket. His progress remains on track. In recent months, he’s seen big improvements, including an extra 20 pounds of solid muscle and more muscle definition.
Some days, he’s sore from the physical therapy and exercises, “but that’s fine. It’s all part of the recovery process,” Jacobs said.
Billiman, who deployed to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, was eager to get his new bionic arm fitted and tailored.
“This is a really good arm,” he said. “I can’t wait until it’s all put together.”
The state-of-the-art arm is known as a myoelectric transhumeral prosthesis, one of the most advanced available. The high-tech arm also boasts an improved cup that provides better suction to enable specific and minute muscle control for hand and arm movement. A set of rubber bands controls the tension in the hand and fingers.
Billiman’s arm has seven bands, each providing three pounds of pressure, he boasted.
After his injury, Billiman said, he often reminisced about all the things he was no longer able to do — write right-handed, for example. He knew little about prosthetics and was uncertain of his future.
“I prayed a lot. It kind of came together. Then, one day I made the decision that this ain’t going to stop [and] that I have to keep going,” he said. It was then, he said, that he became more positive about his life and future. He’s run two 5K races and recently tried his hand at snowboarding. He fell a few times, “but it wasn’t that bad,” he said, chuckling.
“I feel really blessed, really, to be here talking.”
Ellie
West Coast’s first amputee clinic to expand this summer
By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : July 09, 2007
SAN DIEGO — The makeshift therapy room, built for aerobics and exercise classes at the Naval Medical Center here, bustled one morning with hope for some of the Iraq war’s wounded amputees.
Standing on a round balance board, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Daniel Jacobs twisted side to side as he bounced a 4-pound weighted ball off a springboard. A blast from a roadside bomb in Ramadi last year tore apart Jacobs’ Humvee, wounding the platoon corpsman’s infantry buddies and devastating his left leg, which was amputated last fall. Today, he stands tall on a new lightweight carbon-fiber prosthetic leg.
A leather baseball glove and a bat lay on a therapy bed, waiting for the 21-year-old to finish his morning therapy and meet some friends at a ball field.
“I want to get back to being a greenside corpsman. That’s my goal,” said Jacobs, who will soon be outfitted with a powered running leg. “I know I can do it. I’ve just got to wait my time.”
In one corner of the cramped space, Spc. Alroy Billiman posed in front of the mirrored wall, checking out the look and fit of his right shoulder and arm that boasted one of the newest high-tech prosthetics outfitted at the center.
Billiman, a 27-old infantryman, noticed that the powered myoelectric prosthetic arm, which features a lifelike, five-fingered hand and sensors embedded in the triceps area, was color-matched to his skin. “I can’t wait until it’s all put together,” he said.
“It was emotional when I got that arm,” Billiman added, pointing to his first prosthesis, which features a claw-type hand with pinchers and jointed wrist. For months after his Nov. 9 wounding, “I felt like I was missing something. When I put that arm on, I felt like I was a full person again.”
The two wounded men are among 16 or so amputees receiving care and undergoing rehabilitation at the military’s first amputee care center on the West Coast, housed in temporary space at the medical center’s fitness center. They are among the first wounded veterans seeing some of the modern, high-tech prosthetic limbs — bionic-like legs and arms with powered joints — available on the market.
More than 30 percent of amputees in Iraq or Afghanistan are West Coast-based Marines, sailors or soldiers, officials say, so the San Diego location puts high-level care closer to patients’ home stations, units and families.
And more changes are coming.
New center, broader focus
Later this summer, Navy medical officials will unveil the new Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center at its own building, one that will feature high-tech equipment and facilities, including a gait laboratory. Patients will get prosthetics that are designed, built and outfitted on site by an in-house staff supported by contracted companies that specialize in artificial limbs.
Of the 16 patients seen by Peter Harsch, the center’s chief prosthetist, 11 suffered lower-limb injuries. Four patients lost both their legs above the knee, and one Marine suffered the loss of a leg and most of his pelvis.
“He’s doing exceptionally well,” Harsch said. “He walks with an assisted device ... and we’re actually making him a running leg.”
Harsch, who has worked at Walter Reed and Brooke Army medical centers, arrived here last year. Unlike Walter Reed, where amputee and prosthetic care is handled under a sole-source contractor, he said he can tailor the prosthetic care for each patient here.
“I have free will to bring in who I believe is the best [based] on each patient,” he said. “So what we are doing is providing a very ‘boutique’ service.”
Navy medical officials “have allowed us to get the best here, and all of that relates to patient care,” Harsch said. “When they leave here, they have the highest level of rehabilitation care in prosthetics. For the rest of their life, they’re going to be amputees,” cared for by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ system or the private sector.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped advance high-tech devices, including bionic ankles, running legs and computerized “power” knees that help propel the user up hills and stairs. “It generates monies to technologies to allow these guys to do what they’re doing,” Harsch said.
With amputee rehabilitation, “everything starts with a good-fitting limb,” he noted. “It doesn’t matter what kind of [occupational therapy] you have. It doesn’t matter what kind of [physical therapy] you have. ... If your prosthesis isn’t fitting correctly, nothing else goes.”
The care that amputees receive here isn’t just about rehabilitating limbs, but restoring lives.
“It’s more than just getting amputees on their feet — it’s about giving them hope of a fuller life,” Harsch said. “Life might not be better. It might not be worse. It’s just going to be different. We have to be sure our responsibility is to give them the tools and this benchmark care so for the rest of their lives, they will be able to be the best they can with what they have.”
Road to recovery
Jacobs, who hails from Steamboat Springs, Colo., spends his weekday mornings at the center. He awaits another surgery to help restore more mobility in his injured ankle. He’s had multiple surgeries — “thirty-something. I don’t know the exact number. You lose count after a while,” he said.
The platoon corpsman was on patrol with members of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, on Feb. 25, 2006, when the roadside bomb did its damage. After three months of care and surgeries at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he requested transfer to San Diego to be closer to his unit and family, especially his mother, who was battling cancer. Last fall, after research and discussions with surgeons, the young sailor decided to have his leg amputated.
The prosthetic leg boasted autographs from singers Stevie Nicks and Craig Morgan. It’ll become a keepsake once he’s outfitted with a new, high-tech leg made with a better-fitting socket. His progress remains on track. In recent months, he’s seen big improvements, including an extra 20 pounds of solid muscle and more muscle definition.
Some days, he’s sore from the physical therapy and exercises, “but that’s fine. It’s all part of the recovery process,” Jacobs said.
Billiman, who deployed to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, was eager to get his new bionic arm fitted and tailored.
“This is a really good arm,” he said. “I can’t wait until it’s all put together.”
The state-of-the-art arm is known as a myoelectric transhumeral prosthesis, one of the most advanced available. The high-tech arm also boasts an improved cup that provides better suction to enable specific and minute muscle control for hand and arm movement. A set of rubber bands controls the tension in the hand and fingers.
Billiman’s arm has seven bands, each providing three pounds of pressure, he boasted.
After his injury, Billiman said, he often reminisced about all the things he was no longer able to do — write right-handed, for example. He knew little about prosthetics and was uncertain of his future.
“I prayed a lot. It kind of came together. Then, one day I made the decision that this ain’t going to stop [and] that I have to keep going,” he said. It was then, he said, that he became more positive about his life and future. He’s run two 5K races and recently tried his hand at snowboarding. He fell a few times, “but it wasn’t that bad,” he said, chuckling.
“I feel really blessed, really, to be here talking.”
Ellie