Dear Editor, As the mother of a Marine, I feel compelled to let
you know about a situation we have here in the Bay Area, and a way
we can fix it. Specifically, I
’m talking about the Veterans Administration Hospital at Palo
Alto, which is currently caring for a number of our Marines,
soldiers and sailors injured in Iraq.
Dear Editor,
As the mother of a Marine, I feel compelled to let you know about a situation we have here in the Bay Area, and a way we can fix it.
Specifically, I’m talking about the Veterans Administration Hospital at Palo Alto, which is currently caring for a number of our Marines, soldiers and sailors injured in Iraq.
Although the care they provide to the servicemen is excellent, they cannot provide the same level of services to their families. Consequently, they have started an initiative to raise money for a Fisher House, like a Ronald McDonald House. Let me explain:
Because of advances in military and medical technologies and the nature of the modern body armor, many Marines and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving devastating attacks that would have killed them in previous wars. Unfortunately, many of the service members that survive suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) because of the ferocity of these attacks.
In Iraq, a troubling 60 percent of those who suffer impact injuries incur TBI.
TBI is a devastating injury. It can result in changes in psychological status, impair mobility, strength and endurance and cause deficits in cognitive function.
Fortunately, there exists a team of dedicated professionals who can treat this horrific injury, and the VA Palo Alto hospital has one of the VA’s four traumatic brain injury units in the United States.
The VA Palo Alto hospital receives referrals from the entire West Coast and as far away as Texas.
At the hospital, they spend difficult months in rehabilitation, fighting daily to get their lives back.
Meanwhile, wives, mothers, girlfriends, fathers and siblings have to fend for themselves as they come to be near their loved one and help in the healing process.
It’s not a situation any of us like, and I have seen nurses and therapists on the unit take up collections to help the more desperate families such as Cpl. Eric Costillo’s mother, who is single and makes $12,000 a year and lives in Los Angeles Furthermore, she has another 12-year-old son.
Cpl. Costillo lost almost a quarter of his head, is nearly blind and struggles mightily just to take a few steps. The last thing his mother should have to worry about is where she will sleep or how she can pay for a hotel room.
In the overall scheme of things, $1.5 million is not a huge amount of money, but it will have a huge impact for years to come.
A Fisher House will not only serve families of injured Iraqi service members, but will be there for all veterans’ families who have someone they love going through hospice or long-term rehabilitation programs, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and vision-blindness.
For more information see: http://www.fisherhousepa.com. On behalf of the service members, veterans and their families, I applaud you for caring and taking the time to help us, help them.
Mary Ellen Salzano, Morgan Hill
