{"id":566,"date":"2026-08-04T04:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/?p=566"},"modified":"2026-08-04T04:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:44:23","slug":"enabling-functional-success-for-veterans-with-amputations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"Enabling functional success for Veterans with amputations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Overton Brooks VA<\/a> treats more than 300 patients with major limb loss. Kinesiotherapist Russell Barmer\u2019s passion is to lessen his patients\u2019 impact and restore a form of normality for them. He does this with VA\u2019s Outpatient Amputation Specialty Clinics and its national directive to increase clinic accessibility to patients with limb loss.<\/p>\n

The outpatient clinic setting is an essential environment for the provision of amputation care and rehabilitation services. Through these services, either in-person or telehealth, VA strives to minimize disability and enable the highest level of functional, social, vocational and recreational success for Veterans with amputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our Veterans have amputations done in the private sector at other hospitals, and we are working on getting our information out to those other facilities to ensure they are aware of our amputation system of care here at VA,\u201d said Barmer, pictured at right. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen some of our patients for a while. They have moved away or don\u2019t believe they need to come in for checkups\u2026 We have follow up visits at least once a year even if the patient does not feel they have any issues with their prosthetic limbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Barmer explains body mechanics to Navy Veteran Fryday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cGiving our Veterans the service they deserve.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A recent patient, Navy Veteran Garland Fryday, had not been to the Kinesiotherapy<\/a> Clinic for eight years. His visit to the clinic was to see if he could get a new cosmetic cover for his prosthetic leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was seeing the contractor that made his prosthetic and didn\u2019t think he needed to come here, said Barmer. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to see our patients and give them the service they deserve. The equipment wears out and we don\u2019t want Veterans out there using bad equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barmer, along with his colleague Angela Courtade, Southeastern Clinic regional director orthotist-prosthetist, assisting via video teleconference, addressed sores and irritations that had developed on Fryday\u2019s residual limb along with problems developing on his sound limb.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important to preserve the sound limb as foot problems can become a major concern for Veterans. Early treatment with proper shoe wear, socks, compression garments and orthotic interventions can reduce the risk of serious infection or additional amputations,\u201d said Courtade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always get more than I expect.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI receive great care here. I always get more then I expect and everyone is so nice,\u201d said Fryday.<\/p>\n

Overton Brooks VA is designated as an APoC site, an amputation point of contact location. The medical center serves as a location for consultation, assessment and referral of the Veterans to a facility capable of providing the level of services required.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the emotional side to prosthetics. It all depends on how the limb was lost,\u201d said Barmer. \u201cIf a patient has an unrecoverable sick limb that requires amputation and receives a prosthesis, they are generally happy that they have it and their transition is easier. However, when a patient loses a limb suddenly, as in war, and they are fit with a prosthesis, it can be quite an emotional event. That is why the VA APoC also recommends referrals to our mental health services to help Veterans deal with a limb loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProviders that care deeply for their patients.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

VA has programs and counseling set up to help with this transition and they are offered before and after amputation and before the prosthetic.<\/p>\n

The Kinesiotherapy Clinic is working toward their Council on Professional Standards for Kinesiotherapy certification as a Center of Excellence for clinical internship for students in the field of Kinesiotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the medical center to be the best place possible for patients and a continual learning environment for staff, residents and students,\u201d said Courtade. \u201cSince this clinic has great providers that care deeply for their patients, we need to do what we can to show prospective kinesiotherapist students that this is the place to come and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Topics in this story<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Prosthetics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: Prosthetics \u2013 VA News<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Prosthetics \u2013 VA News<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinic provides services to minimize disability and enable the highest level of functional, vocational and recreational success for Veterans with amputation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirstier.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}