YNN.com

Chie Saito explores the latest in treatment and technology used at Fort Sam Houston's San Antonio Military Medical Center, to help wounded warriors continue to live their lives. Plus a look at the research going on, meant to increase survival on tomorrow's battlefield.

Researcher and Orthopedic Surgeon John Kragh doesn't have to look far for a reminder of the difference devices like the Combat Ready Clamp, or CRoC, make in the battlefield.

His friend, Corporal Jaime Smith, was one of 18 killed in the battle of Mogadishu portrayed in the movie "Black Hawk Down."

"Cpl. Jaime Smith, who I knew as Pvt. Smith, was shot in the groin and needed some sort of device. He didn't have this or anything quite like it and that was lethal for Cpl. Smith," Kragh said. "The areas that join the appendages with the trunk had become the most common cause of death on the battlefield that we thought was preventable."

Devices like The Truncal Tourniquet can help stop bleeding in areas where a regular tourniquet doesn't work. Research is happening at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, located right next to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, where they’re testing potentially lifesaving devices before they hit the battlefield.

Researchers are currently working on the Wireless Vital Signs Monitor, a new portable lightweight wireless vital signs monitor using technology to help detect signs of trouble which may otherwise go unnoticed.

Those in the battlefield are currently monitoring seriously injured troops based only on blood oxygen level and heart rate.

"Our medics are going into battle with only a finger pulsox as their only diagnostic tool for basically taking care of these critical care patients," Combat Critical Care Engineering Jose Salinas said. "In the United States, if you are in a trauma situation and you have to be transported to a hospital, you get hooked up to a $15,000 monitor and it gives you a lot more information than what's currently available on the battlefield."

The wireless component can make the most of one medic.
"Any technology we can provide to that 68 Whiskey, medic, will definitely help improve patient care," Salinas said. “Now you have a medic with a receiving unit who can take care of multiple casualties."

Both the Truncal Tourniquet and Wireless Vital Signs Monitor have yet to be widely distributed and used on the warfront. The CroC comes with a price tag of $427, but the cost of training associated with the device makes it a big decision. From a researcher’s perspective, Kragh says it shouldn't be about the dollars, it's about what he says simply makes sense.

"The loss of any one of these casualties is very real. Corporal Smith had a family. He had buddies," Kragh said.
Even with the greatest advancements in technology and medicine, support from family and the community play vital roles in the healing process for wounded warriors.

Friday, we'll tell you about a place at Fort Sam Houston that's providing a home away from home for injured troops and their families.
  More...

She may never have worn a military uniform, but for the last four months, Linda Roberts has been soldiering on through the pain.

“There's no way you can imagine. It can happen just like that,” she said. "I have burns on all the front of my body."

Now, Roberts is rehabbing at the world renowned burn center inside the San Antonio Military Medical Center.

"The simple everyday things that you can't do anymore, that's tough," she said.

Roberts is recovering alongside soldiers like Staff Sgt. Robert Geer. An IED went off near him during his fifth tour in Afghanistan.

"You feel like you're invincible. Your mindset is, ‘Nah I'm never going to get hurt, until you finally do," he said. "It knocked me 10 feet into the air and onto a soldier pulling security. My first instinct was, I was on fire."

From the blast, he injured his arm and lost a chunk of his left side, starting from his back and continuing all the way down to his thigh.

"I'm still in the process of doing the therapy for mobilization and working with my arm to regain strength," Sgt. Geer said.

Since 2003, more than 800 service members burned in Iraq or Afghanistan have been transported to the U.S. Army's Institute of Surgical Research burn center, which is the only burn center for the department of defense.

However, with the war winding down, the center’s mission is changing.

The recent construction of a brand new 40-bed burn center, equipped with the latest in burn care technology, is helping them stay prepared.

"We were intimately involved in the design process to make sure things would be constructed that would directly meet our needs,” Head Nurse Lt. Col. Louis Stout said. “Not only our needs for today, but hopefully our needs for our future as well."

A future that's looking better when it comes to survival. According to Stout, 40 to 50 years ago, people suffering from 30 percent burns had a 50 percent of survival. Today, that has gone up from a 50 percent chance of survival for burns to nearly 80 percent.

"One of the primary areas that we've worked on is the early excision and grafting, so getting the patients into the operating room early, excising the skin properly and getting them on the healing process a lot sooner," Lt. Col. Stout said.

With more people living with severe burns, over the years, the rehab process had to be adjusted to help get burn survivors back on their feet.

"To be able to get out again, and to be able to come back into society, it's an amazing event," Sgt. Geer said.

Even though their paths to the burn center may have been different, Roberts says she and Sgt. Geer are on a similar journey.

"Mine was in a house fire. Theirs may have been in the fight,” she said. “We're all living the same thing.”
  More...

For retired Marine Sgt. Eric Morante, all of the small steps over the last five years have added up to big strides.

"I actually thought I was going to be wheelchair bound," he said.

During a deployment to Iraq, the 27-year-old lost his right leg above the knee.

"The suicide bomber came underneath the overpass that we were standing on, and he detonated while we were on top," Morante said.

Now, he leans on what's called a “C-Leg.”

"Eric can give it signals so it knows what to do basically, so it knows when to lock, knows when to stay in certain positions," Lead Prosthetist John Ferguson said.

The C-Leg technology itself has been around for more than 10 years. Recent advancements have helped combat veterans like Morante face an unlikely foe.

"I wouldn't go out on rainy days, just taking out the trash on a rainy day that would even scare me,” Morante said.

Now, he's one of about three dozen service members in the country testing the waters with a $35,000 waterproof C-Leg.

"I'm sitting in the pool right now with the actual leg that I walk on every day. It's super amazing to me," Morante said.

Morante is one of more than 800 troops injured on the warfront who have access to technology and treatment on the forefront of medicine.

A rehab facility just across the way from Fort Sam Houston's San Antonio Military Medical Center is known as the Center for the Intrepid. It’s the place where Eric got new found freedom.

However, other amputees, like 22-year-old Marine Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos, have been freed using a tool that costs less than $35.

He was wounded in Afghanistan.

I remember when I first got hit, it actually feels like your arm is still there,” Cpl. Gallegos said. “I was trying to climb out of the canal thinking that my arm was still there."

It’s a condition called phantom limb pain.

"The brain thinks there's something there, so it still sends those nerve signals that cause pain," Occupational Therapy Supervisor Lisa Smurr Walters said.

Treatment for phantom limb pain centers on illusion. A simple mirror is used to trick the brain into thinking the nonexistent limb is still there, to move into a position that helps ease the pain.

"Somebody tells you that you're going to move your hand in a mirror and you're pain is going to go away. You're like, ‘I'm sure it's going go away,’" Cpl. Gallegos said.

It’s technology that’s putting a loss of a limb hand-and-hand with limitless possibilities.

"For us this has been a huge push forward and an exciting one,” Ferguson said. “A very unfortunate circumstance that none of us want or asked for, but things have moved forward and a lot of people will benefit because of it."

Even though the Center for the Intrepid is relatively new, the world renowned burn center at Fort Sam Houston has had a long standing reputation in burn care.
  More...

After years of being known as Brooke Army Medical Center, the hospital underwent a historic name change to San Antonio Military Medical Center, or SAMMC, last year. The move was all part of a 2005 Base Realignment program to consolidate military medical training and services, but even though their name may be new, the home of the defense department's largest inpatient medical facility has historic roots.

Building 123 at Fort Sam Houston was once a mess hall. Now, it serves a whole new purpose as the post museum.

For acting museum director Jacqueline Davis, summing up more than 165 years of history is one tall order.

"Fort Sam Houston is a lot older than people think it is," Davis said. "We've been in town since 1845. We started out in downtown in rented buildings."

One of the rented buildings included the Alamo which served as the supply depot for the Army.

"The Army thought about moving to Austin, but again, the City of San Antonio did not want that to happen, so that's why they gave the donation of land down here," Davis said.

The city donated 92 acres of land, which became known as Government Hill.

"When we moved here, we had a wooden 12-man hospital that was replaced by a permanent 12-man hospital,” Davis said.

The hospital is now a visitor's quarters. Over the next 40 years, the post saw continual growth and expansion, but it wasn’t until after World War II when medicine began to play a much larger role at Fort Sam Houston.

"Just after the war, it became the home of the Army Medic, and all medical training in the Army was done here," Davis said.

With the change also came a change in mission, based on range space rather than function. The limited area prevented units from firing large weapons, like tanks, safely. The result was a combat unit post turned into a largely military medical training post.

Today, Fort Sam Houston is home to San Antonio Military Medical Center, formerly known as Brooke Army Medical Center. It’s the largest inpatient military medical facility for the department of defense.

"We call ourselves military city U.S.A.,” San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez said. “We've had a close relationship with the military for many, many years."

The post is located near the heart of San Antonio and is a vital lifeline to the city, adding up to more than $2.6 billion in economic impact.

"If we didn't have SAMMC here, if we didn't have Fort Sam Houston here, I suspect the robustness of our economy would be greatly diminished,” Perez said. “We have a tremendous amount of research going on that comes directly from the injured men and women who are coming back from harm’s way.”

One in six residents works in the bioscience and medical field.

Tuesday, we'll continue our series with a look inside a state-of-the-art rehab facility at Fort Sam Houston. See how the technology and treatment at the Center for the Intrepid is helping wounded warriors.
  More...