VA trauma center treats most grievously wounded troops

Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, CA is one of four VA centers nationwide staffed and equipped specifically to treat the most grievously wounded U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. The centers have become a key element in caring for the wounded as the war in Afghanistan enters its second decade and the injured from Iraq continue to need care. They are the result of important medical insights gleaned from the long wars in the Middle East — that modern battlefield injuries, particularly those from bomb blasts, require a team approach from physicians and therapists. The number of troops suffering amputations and other catastrophic injuries is increasing as the U.S. counter-insurgency strategy requires them to leave the protection of heavily armored vehicles and do more foot patrols to help win support from Afghan civilians.