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America Supports You
Society Eases
Financial Burden for Patients, Families
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July xx , 2005 – A group based here at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center has stepped forward to help families of wounded service members with
expenses to stay in the area while their loved ones recover in this
high-cost area.
Out
of concern for the overwhelming number of family members of war-wounded
service members showing up at the hospital’s doorstep needing financial
assistance, the Walter Reed command asked the Walter Reed Society to help.
“So on March 19, 2004, we created the Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom
Family Support Fund,” said retired Army Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Bullis, the
society’s adviser for enlisted affairs and committee chairman of the support
fund. “Since then, we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of support from
corporations and individuals across the country wanting to donate to that
fund.”
Bullis credits Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha and General Dynamics Corp.
with getting the fund rolling with a $100,000 donation. He noted that the
fund helps families of patients from all services. Those needing assistance
are referred to the society by the Walter Reed Medical Family Assistance
Center.
“Since this is such a high-cost area (Washington metropolitan area), we help
families with living expenses, keeping up with bills back home, childcare,
just a host of financial needs they have,” Bullis said.
The
government pays one-time round-rip transportation costs for up to three
family members of patients whom doctors verify as “seriously ill” or “very
seriously ill,” Bullis said. For family members of patients who are not in
either of these categories, “there’s a program for free frequent flyer air
miles available through the Fisher House Foundation,” he said.
“The types of requests for assistance we get run the gamut,”
Bullis noted.
“If a soldier has lost a limb, they’re going to be here (Walter Reed) for
quite some time getting fitted with their new prosthetic limbs. So as a
result, the family is here for a long time. If there are small children with
the mom, we help with paying for the child care so the wife can be on the
ward with her husband. Or we fund some of the needs for the mom and dad to
live in a high-cost area.”
Bullis said it has been “quite a ride” since the fund’s establishment. He
noted that the outpouring of support from across the country is phenomenal.
For example, he said, “a Vietnam veteran who is a custom home builder in
Michigan held a silent auction of one of his homes and raised about $60,000.
He asked if we could earmark a good portion of that for the needs of
patients in occupational therapy.”
Donors include a colonel’s widow who visits the hospital periodically and
gave the society a check for $10,000 and an business owner in Chicago who
sent two $50,000 checks.
“It’s
not the amounts that count; we’ve received checks from $10 to $100,000,”
Bullis said during a recent society meeting at the Mologne House hotel on
the Walter Reed campus. “We’re all volunteers, so there’s no overhead for
the society. All the money coming in goes out to service members and their
families.”
Bullis emphasized that needing money to help wounded service members and
their families isn’t a reflection on the command, because the myriad needs
of seriously injured troops outweigh the ability of the command to respond.
He said husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles,
fiancées and girlfriends come to the hospital from across the nation to be
with their loved ones being treated for war wounds and injuries.
Some
family members and loved ones get the government-paid transportation and
around $38 per day to cover living costs, Bullis noted.
Others are not sponsored, "but they come anyway, because there’s no way they
can stay home when their loved one is here being cared for,” Bullis said.
“So they drive from Texas or across the country and show up here. And their
needs are just as real as those that are sponsored (by the government).
Bullis said he meets with family members when they arrive. “I sit with each
family member, to meet them, embrace them and let them know that we’re here
for them. Then I communicate their needs to the assistance center.
Generally, we get everything done within a day.”
At
the society meeting, Bullis described examples of people who have needed the
society’s help. For instance, a staff sergeant Army sniper who suffered a
head injury, lost an eye and had short-term memory loss had tremendous
financial needs for himself and his three children.
He
couldn’t remember where he stored his truck before going to Iraq. He knew it
was somewhere in Washington state, but couldn’t remember where.
“So
through our network of helpers with veterans service organizations, one of
them happened to be the chief of police in Seattle and he found (the
soldier’s) truck,” Bullis said.
In
another case, the mother and father of a soldier in extended care were
visiting him at Walter Reed when the father collapsed with a fatal heart
attack.
“It’s
devastating enough to be here with your son, but for that to happen and the
family to be without any means of shipping the remains back to their home in
New York is rough,” Bullis said. “But the Walter Reed Society was here to do
that for them.”
Bullis also explained helping a staff sergeant who had a fractured jaw that
was wired shut. The soldier and his wife needed help. “They said they needed
financial assistance to take a train back home,” Bullis said. “I said, ‘Why
a train?’”
The
soldier and his wife explained that he had to have wire cutters with him in
case they needed to get his mouth open in an emergency – but this posed a
problem with airline security. “We called the Transportation Security
Administration, and they allowed him to fly,” Bullis said.
The
society stepped in again when a mother and father were visiting their son,
who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in Iraq. “They needed to get the
soldier and the family back to Stanford (Calif.) Cancer Center,” Bullis
said. “The mom and dad were divorced, and they both needed help. They came
here to be with their son, so we gave each of them $1,000. That amount is
beyond the society's normal $500 limit for financial assistance, he
explained, "but within what they needed.”
He
added that the society makes some exceptions for some family needs such as
mortgage and car payments and power bills.
On a
smaller scale, the society has provided local transportation for
servicemembers at Walter Reed, purchased special mats to train lower
extremity amputees to walk on surfaces and special mats to teach them how to
fall safely. It has also bought musical instruments for occupational-therapy
patients to help them with dexterity problems.
Nine
former staffers of Walter Reed founded the society in 1996. Since then, it
has grown to more than 450 members. “It has proliferated into a much bigger
cause of involving the whole Walter Reed family,” Bullis noted.
The society’s goal is to
preserve and enhance the medical center's history and reputation, and to
assist its patients
and staff.
The
society’s board of governors includes physicians, nurses, administrators,
family members, and retired service members and Army civilians. Membership
is open to officers, enlisted, active and reserve component members, retired
service members and civilians, family members, and past and present
patients.
The
society has also helped finance a healing garden on the Walter Reed campus
where families and loved ones can go in solace and spend time by themselves,
Bullis said.
In
addition to accepting donations, the society sells affordable signature
items, such as a 3-by-4-foot afghan depicting six familiar Walter Reed
landmarks, holiday ornaments, key rings, pewter containers, mugs, prints,
note cards, pens and other items to raise money to help patients and their
families.
“As
tragic as war is, it has certainly allowed the society to be benefactors of
the spirit of America,” Bullis said. “There are so many folks coming forward
with so many donations and goodwill gestures that it’s just heartwarming to
be a part of that whole effort in trying to carry out the desires of
America’s support toward our men and women in uniform."
Walter Reed Society
http://www.walterreedsociety.org
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/
Walter Reed Medical Family Assistance Center
http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/Soldiers/MedFac1/index2.htm
America Supports You
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/
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