Vet News: Texas Opens Army's Second Amputee Center

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Jan. 18, 2005 -– More than 200 people attended the opening ceremony of the Army’s second Amputee Center at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Jan. 14.

The first center opened in December at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

Army leadership, members of the San Antonio community -- to include the mayor, and many amputees -- attended the opening.

The center is the Army’s only Level One Trauma Center and the Defense Department’s only Burn Center, which is open to all service members and works to give the injured full function of the amputated parts.

"This makes Brooke one of only six hospitals in the nation to carry both credentials," said Brig. Gen. C. William Fox Jr., commander of BAMC. "We are now adding to this, the second DOD Amputee Care Center credentials that underscore our passion for the care for wounded soldiers."

In addition to serving the amputees, this Amputee Center will also double as a place of research. The center will focus on how it can better serve the amputees in their physical and emotional status to include counselors and social work.

"This generation of Soldiers and future generations like them know we will always be there for them with the best medical care in the world," Fox said. "…the Army Medical Department, some 77,000 strong, will never stop ensuring that the men and women we ask to go into harm’s way … have the very best medical care in the world. Should they be evacuated home, they will receive the best care this nation can provide to restore them to duty, and if we are unable to do this, we will seamlessly transition them into the hands of our magnificent Veterans Medical System."

Fox stressed that with technological advances, the current survival rate of combat injures for Soldiers participating in operations worldwide has gone from 76 percent to 91 percent.

"These forward medical efforts are the result of the ‘train as you will perform’ medical education that is present in our many Army medical centers like Brooke and Walter Reed that ensure our military receives the most highly trained and skilled doctors, nurses and medics for deployment forward," he said.

Before the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth O. Preston pinned the Purple Heart on five Soldiers.

"...Today is a humbling experience," Cody said. "This is something I wish we didn’t have to do, but I’m honored that we’re doing it right. Today, we open the second Amputee Center as a commitment to say we’ll never leave our fallen behind."

SOURCE: VNIS