Officials at VA groundbreaking laud improved care
6:07 PM Fri, Nov 21, 2008 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE -- More than 1,200 amputees have returned from war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other anti-terrorist military action -- of those, 877 have lost major limbs, not fingers or toes. At least 12,000 veterans from the war are suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury, according to U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin. With better body armor and more advanced emergency response teams available for U.S. troops, more veterans who would have perished in past conflicts are now surviving -- but they need critical rehabilitative care. Top doctors working to revolutionize amputee health care and dramatically improve limb function will soon be working in a new $6.1 million building on the campus of the Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center. This morning, doctors and political leaders at a groundbreaking ceremony at the Chalkstone Avenue VA facility lauded the VA Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine. The center is a partnership between the Providence VA Medical Center, Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "More than anything, a veteran who has suffered an injury or mental illness would like to return to a normal life," Langevin said. "This center gives our veterans the tools they need to make that transition as smooth as possible - whether by performing all their daily activities, returning to work or running a road race." Orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, professors and other researchers from the three partner organizations are already working together, but in modular units on the VA campus and elsewhere. The new center, expected to open next October, will allow better collaboration among researchers all in one location. Center researchers, led by MIT researcher Hugh Herr, have already created the first motorized ankle-foot prosthesis. They're now working on the creation of a robotic arm, according to James W. Burrows, director of communications for the VA Medical Center. "Already, the center's breakthrough research is revolutionizing amputee health care, dramatically improving limb function and changing the lives of America's heroes," said Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the Under Secretary for Health for the Veterans Health Administration, who traveled to Providence for the groundbreaking ceremony. 
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