Dr. Kenneth Lee is chief of the spinal cord injury division at the VA. He's standing near art he created while recovering from injuries sustained while deployed in Iraq.
Spinal cord injury patient Gus Sorenson. He was featured on a Cheerios box last year after winning three gold medals at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.
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Milwaukee VA to Open New Spinal Cord Injury Center
By Erin Toner
November 23, 2009 | WUWM | Milwaukee, WI
If you’ve driven recently through the grounds of the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, you may have noticed bulldozers and a huge hole just north of the hospital. Workers are building a new clinic to treat veterans with spinal cord injuries. It will replace a smaller, outdated facility that does not have the best access for people in wheelchairs. WUWM’s Erin Toner stopped by to learn about the new clinic and people who will use it.
“We’re outside looking at the construction zone and they’re building the tunnel, digging the tunnel, that’s going to connect the new Spinal Cord Injury Center to the basement of the hospital.”
That’s Brian Walker. Before he became a public affairs officer for the VA Medical Center, he was a therapist for its patients with spinal cord injuries.
“I worked on spinal cord injury for 14 years and we never thought we’d see this day,” Walker says.
We’ve entered the crowded hospital and are headed to its existing spinal cord injury center, all the way up on the top floor.
“We ended up in the 10th floor somehow, which is not the ideal place to be.”
Dr. Kenneth Lee is chief of the spinal cord injury division. He says his patients, who are in wheelchairs, can’t easily get up here, plus the location would present challenges if the hospital had to be evacuated. Lee says when the new Spinal Cord Injury Center opens in 2012, it’ll be a two-story building with ground access. Other amenities will include a greenhouse, areas for socializing and the most up-to-date medical equipment.
“We also have what we call the technology room. They’re actually going to learn how to use technology to their benefit, whether it’s going to be just for home recreational use or for vocational pursuit,” Lee says.
Lee helped win the final approval needed to build the new Spinal Cord Injury Center. He says he developed a deep appreciation for the need during his deployment to Iraq a few years ago. He was a trauma physician on the front lines.
“The young Marines that were injured or even killed, it was just tremendous how young they are and how maimed they become. So when I came back from war, it was a realization that this new Spinal Cord Injury Center isn’t just a process that I have to work on, that it’s a must. It’s gotta be part of my life, it has to come from my heart,” Lee says.
The Milwaukee VA treats around 400 veterans with spinal cord injuries from across the country. Right now, about 20 are staying there for treatment. Lee says some were hurt while in combat, perhaps because of a sniper attack or explosion. But most were injured after their military service.
That was the case for Gus Sorenson of Sturtevant. He was 21 when he became paralyzed from the upper chest down.
“I was home from Vietnam and out of the Army 16 days, got in a car accident. I didn’t buckle the seat belt, so, big mistake on my part,” Sorenson says.
That was 40 years ago, but Sorenson still has vivid memories of the days following his accident
"I remember sometimes laying there at night, and you’re terrified. All the things you take for granted, scratching the tip of your nose, getting dressed, getting washed. All of a sudden you need help with that. And that is…that’s a real shock. And then you wonder, what comes after this when I’m out of this hospital? Where am I going to go, what am I going to do?” Sorenson says.
Sorenson still returns to the VA for annual medical care and sometimes stops on the 10th floor to visit other veterans being treated for spinal cord injuries.
“Life goes on and life ain’t fair and you have to make do with what you’ve got. And we’re fond of saying, it’s not what you’ve lost, it’s what you have left,” Sorenson says.
Sorenson says in all the years he’s been coming to the VA, he’s been told the 10th floor location is just temporary. He says the new spinal cord injury clinic will be fantastic, but in his words, “I’ll believe it when our guys are in it.”
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