Still Serving
Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America Chapter will be installing a donor recognition wall at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin headquarters, in honor of those Wisconsin veterans who have served their country. Click here to participate.
Click here to donate your used car, boat, or RV to WPVA
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Gift Bricks
The new Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center has been designed and decorated to provide a very healing environment. To compliment this atmosphere there are large sections of wall space located near the two outside entrances dedicated to the memory of those veterans who are important to us. Each veteran is to be remembered with a personalized decorative tile engraved with the name and pertinent information concerning the individual as provided by the donor. The donor will also determine the size of the commemorative tile. Options are available for inclusion of logos and insignias as the size and design of the tiles permit. Sponsor organizations are encouraged to participate by purchasing a commemorative tile.
The Gift Brick® program has been underway since January and will continue through the end of the year. Response to date has been slower than desired due in part to the low key approach to promoting the commemorative tiles. This is a wonderful opportunity to give those special veterans a well deserved, lasting memorial and, at the same time, support the outstanding spinal cord program provided by the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.
If you are interested in learning more about the commemorative brick program or you wish to memorialize a veteran with a personalized tile, go HERE or contact the WPVA office for additional information. Proceeds from the Gift Brick® program will be used for the purchase of non-VA equipment and activities and to help pay for non-traditional therapy for veterans with SCI/D.
The new Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center has been designed and decorated to provide a very healing environment. To compliment this atmosphere there are large sections of wall space located near the two outside entrances dedicated to the memory of those veterans who are important to us. Each veteran is to be remembered with a personalized decorative tile engraved with the name and pertinent information concerning the individual as provided by the donor. The donor will also determine the size of the commemorative tile. Options are available for inclusion of logos and insignias as the size and design of the tiles permit. Sponsor organizations are encouraged to participate by purchasing a commemorative tile.
The Gift Brick® program has been underway since January and will continue through the end of the year. Response to date has been slower than desired due in part to the low key approach to promoting the commemorative tiles. This is a wonderful opportunity to give those special veterans a well deserved, lasting memorial and, at the same time, support the outstanding spinal cord program provided by the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.
If you are interested in learning more about the commemorative brick program or you wish to memorialize a veteran with a personalized tile, go HERE or contact the WPVA office for additional information. Proceeds from the Gift Brick® program will be used for the purchase of non-VA equipment and activities and to help pay for non-traditional therapy for veterans with SCI/D.
Doctor wages new battle
By Todd Richmond, Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ken Lee lives every day with reminders of a suicide car bombing: a crescent-shaped scar on his temple, thumbs that don't work correctly, constant headaches, and legs and arms that always feel like they're on fire.
The attack in Baghdad nearly killed the Wisconsin National Guard's chief medical officer, leaving him with a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder so severe that the slightest provocation sent him into a furniture-smashing rage — even as he worked to diagnose and heal fellow veterans back home.
Lee eventually learned to live with his nightmares. Now as the last American troops leave Iraq, he's using his unique experience — as a doctor, patient and combat veteran — to wage a new battle to call attention to the effects of combat trauma that will be with veterans for years to come.
"I can tell my son that his dad was right in the middle of it," Lee said. "I was part of the process to make it better."
Read rest of story and see more pictures by clicking HERE
By Todd Richmond, Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ken Lee lives every day with reminders of a suicide car bombing: a crescent-shaped scar on his temple, thumbs that don't work correctly, constant headaches, and legs and arms that always feel like they're on fire.
The attack in Baghdad nearly killed the Wisconsin National Guard's chief medical officer, leaving him with a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder so severe that the slightest provocation sent him into a furniture-smashing rage — even as he worked to diagnose and heal fellow veterans back home.
Lee eventually learned to live with his nightmares. Now as the last American troops leave Iraq, he's using his unique experience — as a doctor, patient and combat veteran — to wage a new battle to call attention to the effects of combat trauma that will be with veterans for years to come.
"I can tell my son that his dad was right in the middle of it," Lee said. "I was part of the process to make it better."
Read rest of story and see more pictures by clicking HERE
Long-sought spinal facility set to open at VA medical center
By Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel
When Gus Sorenson broke his neck less than a month after returning home from Vietnam, he ended up in the spinal cord injury unit at Milwaukee's VA hospital.
Sorenson, now 63, was among the second wave of patients coming to the 1-year-old spinal cord clinic when he arrived in September 1970.
"One of the questions I asked was, 'Why do you have a spinal cord unit on the 10th floor of a 10-floor hospital?' And they told me it was temporary," said Sorenson, government relations director for the Wisconsin chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America.
"Forty years later it's still there."
Click here for Slide Show
Not for much longer.
Crews have finished construction of a new $27.5 million federally financed facility, and equipment will soon be installed followed by spinal cord patients at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients are expected to move in later this year or early next year.
The Milwaukee VA Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center boosts space from 18,000 to 68,000 square feet. (Click Here To Read Rest Of Story)
By Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel
When Gus Sorenson broke his neck less than a month after returning home from Vietnam, he ended up in the spinal cord injury unit at Milwaukee's VA hospital.
Sorenson, now 63, was among the second wave of patients coming to the 1-year-old spinal cord clinic when he arrived in September 1970.
"One of the questions I asked was, 'Why do you have a spinal cord unit on the 10th floor of a 10-floor hospital?' And they told me it was temporary," said Sorenson, government relations director for the Wisconsin chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America.
"Forty years later it's still there."
Click here for Slide Show
Not for much longer.
Crews have finished construction of a new $27.5 million federally financed facility, and equipment will soon be installed followed by spinal cord patients at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients are expected to move in later this year or early next year.
The Milwaukee VA Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center boosts space from 18,000 to 68,000 square feet. (Click Here To Read Rest Of Story)
Our Mission
The Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America (WPVA) will improve the quality of life of United States military veterans and others who have spinal cord dysfunction through the use of education, communication, advocacy, legislation, research, and sports & recreation.
The Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), a congressionally chartered veterans service organization founded in 1946, has developed a unique expertise on a wide variety of issues involving the special needs of our members - veterans of the armed forces who have experienced spinal cord injury or dysfunction.
PVA will use that expertise to be the leading advocate for:
• Quality health care for our members,
• Research and education addressing spinal cord injury and dysfunction,
• Benefits available as a result of our members' military service,
• Civil rights and opportunities which maximize the independence of our members.
To enable PVA to continue to honor this commitment, we must recruit and retain members who have the experience, energy, dedication, and passion necessary to manage the organization and ensure adequate resources to sustain the programs essential for PVA to achieve its mission.
The Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America (WPVA) will improve the quality of life of United States military veterans and others who have spinal cord dysfunction through the use of education, communication, advocacy, legislation, research, and sports & recreation.
The Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), a congressionally chartered veterans service organization founded in 1946, has developed a unique expertise on a wide variety of issues involving the special needs of our members - veterans of the armed forces who have experienced spinal cord injury or dysfunction.
PVA will use that expertise to be the leading advocate for:
• Quality health care for our members,
• Research and education addressing spinal cord injury and dysfunction,
• Benefits available as a result of our members' military service,
• Civil rights and opportunities which maximize the independence of our members.
To enable PVA to continue to honor this commitment, we must recruit and retain members who have the experience, energy, dedication, and passion necessary to manage the organization and ensure adequate resources to sustain the programs essential for PVA to achieve its mission.