Walter Reed opens new center for amputees

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news/2007/09/military_amputee_070912w

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 13, 2007 6:19:51 EDT

In a military overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of service members needing medical care, Walter Reed Army Medical Center has pulled a fast one.

In just under a year, the new Military Advanced Training Center for Soldier Amputees rose from the ground of a campus slated to be moved to Bethesda, Md., because the Army Medical Command deemed the need to be immediate.

Before, soldiers practiced walking on their new prosthetic limbs in hallways and on stairways because the old prosthetic lab wasn’t big enough to accommodate them and the technicians, let alone the new devices. And there was no place for family members.

The technology is amazing at the new outpatient center. There’s a climbing wall that rotates to create new challenges, a firearms simulator with mechanical hands to properly grip the trigger, a ground simulator that moves as a service member “walks” through a 3-D forest and a gait lab that lets scientists gather images from 23 cameras to determine which movement or device works best for each patient.

But it’s the little things that stuck out as the center’s staff prepared for opening day Sept. 13.

As the troops make their ways through the building, there is no raised aluminum trim between tile and carpet to trip them up. There’s a family lounge complete with a kitchen and lockers. And there are one-way mirrors in counselors’ offices that look out on an indoor running track — to provide inspiration.

Of 607 service members with amputations, 465 have gone through the paces at Walter Reed, and the new center will help them move from their first tentative steps to a life that will be a little less difficult than before.

“They start with basics, and then they move to leisure,” said Col. Stephanie Daughtery, chief of occupational therapy.

Then she grinned. “And they like it.”