Program uses popular technology to aid rehabilitation

by Spc. Christopher T. Grammer
50th PAD

When one of America’s warfighters recites the Soldiers’ Creed, he states that he will never leave a fallen comrade. The Army takes this statement to heart when it comes to its wounded warriors.

Soldiers who suffer from various conditions such as traumatic brain injury, bullet wounds or blast injuries have found the extra care needed to help them back to health in the Warriors Activity Recreation Sports program at Womack Army Medical Center.

“The WARS program started out as a physical training program, sort of an alternative to the regular program for injured Soldiers who are to return to active duty,” said Linda Hurst, an occupational therapist at WAMC.

Some of the Soldiers in the program are separating from the military and need to be healthy enough to return to the civilian world and regular employment. To assist these Soldiers, the WARS program works in partnership with Cumberland County Parks and Recreation to expose them to facilities in the community that they can go to for physical activity and socialization.
WARS includes a variety of different programs intended to take the servicemembers from an almost sedative state back to the fast-paced life of a Soldier. Most of the cases, however, are TBI, which leaves Soldiers’ mental abilities hindered.

“The main issues Soldiers face are more cognitive, such as memory loss, hand eye coordination, processing information and balance,” said Hurst.

The Wii gaming system has video games that allow Soldiers to utilize these basic skills to build them back up.

There are firing games that allow Soldiers to use hand-eye coordination to track objects as well as memory games to help the Soldiers process information and utilize the areas of the brain that can be damaged or might atrophy during the healing process.

One of the Soldiers who benefits from this program is Sgt. 1st Class Robert Edward Suesakul, a warrior in transition assigned to Delta Company, Warrior Transition Battalion.

“The program was in its infancy when I first came into it,” said Suesakul.

Suesakul was acting as a route clearance sergeant in Iraq when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle. He suffered from TBI, post traumatic stress disorder and various blast injuries following the incident. Suesakul has been in the WARS program twice for a combined period of 16 weeks.
“What the WARS program does is gets us out of our rooms not only to do PT to the best of our ability, but also to socialize with others who have the same type of wounds that we have,” said Suesakul.

The program includes many other ways to get Soldiers up and moving again. Aquatics are a group of exercises that allow for endurance training in a non-weight bearing environment. This is especially good for lower back and orthopedic injuries.

“We’ve used a variety of creative events to try to get Soldiers motivated and to be engaged in activities instead of sitting in their rooms. It also fosters socialization for those diagnosed with behavioral health problems,” said Hurst.

Feelings of isolation or pride can sometimes cause Soldiers to keep to themselves and prevents them from seeking support from others.

“The Army has the buddy system, but that was not being used because Soldiers didn’t want to be exposed as having physical deficits,” said Hurst.

The WARS program promotes socialization in all its activities to give Soldiers the comfort of knowing that there are others there to help them.

“Soldiers tend to want to heal by themselves or on their own, and that’s not quite healthy, so the activities with all the events foster socialization. It gives them others to heal with,” said Hurst.
With so many different activities like aquatics, spin classes, yoga, Tai chi, strength conditioning, hiking trails, tennis, relay activities and volleyball, the WARS program can accommodate almost any handicap. Nothing to scoff at considering the occupational therapy team has a staff of only four.

Such a small group can’t be expected to help so many of the wounded veterans that come through WAMC by itself.

“All the people that associate with the WARS program besides the staff are volunteers who do this out of their own time,” said Suesakul. “It’s nice to have someone who wants to be there for us and puts the extra effort into getting to know each of us individually.”

With the assistance of volunteers and the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation facilities, the Soldiers are afforded a much more personalized regimen. This personalization increases the chances of success.

“We’ve had some Soldiers who were wheelchair bound that progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to a quad-point cane to a single point cane to moving completely unassisted,” said Hurst.
Injured Soldiers, whether they are amputees, blast wound victims or otherwise, now have hope for a return to normalcy in the WARS program. For the WAMC, the WARS program is the catalyst to turn an oath taken to an oath kept.