Rotary International District 5170

With a number of inspiring vignettes about soldiers wounded in the current war, Ms. Kerri Childress personalizes how casualties of the war are being treated, trained and prepared to take up an active life again. All this is the responsibility of a specialized staff  & medical team at the Poly-trauma Rehabilitation Center, located at the Palo Alto VA Hospital.

This Palo Alto Center is one of four specialized hospitals in the US established especially for the wounded of the present war.  Ms. Childress brings a moving and hopeful message about what is done to help rebuild shattered lives and hopes. As she stresses, this takes individual courage and motivation, especially after the kind of traumatic brain injuries many of the casualties are sustaining today. In fact, this injury has become the signature one of the war due to the prevalence of IED’s or car bomb injuries.

If you have access to projection equipment* – for DVD, CD, VHS - Kerri starts her program showing a 2-min. clip from Channel 2, describing the PA Poly-trauma center.  It also introduces a number of the casualty patients who demonstrate some of the exercises they perform in their rehabilitation training. One of the vignettes elaborates on a former Cupertino High School football star, an Ex-Marine, who illustrates the challenges he has to overcome as he adapts himself to the new way of life he is about to embark upon.  [*Most commonly, the talk is given without any visual aid.].

As Cupertino Rotary wrote in their The Rotator, "The dedicated team of doctors, nurses and others [combined] with the amazing attitudes of the patients, perform daily miracles".  Share the realization of these "miracles" and be inspired, too, by inviting Kris Childress to your club soon.

Sep. 2006