Saturday, June 23, 1973
THE SUMMER DAILY
Page Five
Saturday, June 23, 1973 THE SUMMER DAILY Page Five
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Disabled vets learnto cope
By ARNOLD B. SAWISLAK cently:, "My biggest problem is upon the reaction to them of One young man, "grounded" Jim Maye asked a doctor about
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Jim people who don't care." those who stayed home. from wheelchair travel, when he it when he was in a military
VMayer was an infantryman, a Jim Maye, 30, the president of developed pressure sores from hospital and was given a run-
runt. He was 23 when a booby- MAYER'S ATTITUDE is dis- the Paralyzed Veterans of Amer- lying on his back, propelled him- around. He concluded that no
rap got him in Vietnam on April tinctly upbeat, but what about the ica, says, "To some people, Viet- self around while lying on his one wanted to discuss sex and
9, 1969. severely disabled Vietnam veter- nam veterans represent every- stomach on a wheeled table. "found out for myself."
He recalls: "When I came to, ans in VA hospitals or sitting at thing bad. They see us as drug Amputees have entirely differ- Morgan is determined that this
chaplain asked me where I was home? addicts, as men who went arund ent problems than veterans who subject, a prime anxiety of
it. I said that I had lost my Just three years ago, the VA killing babies." are paralyzed or otherwise ill. young men who have lost the use
ight foot. He asked me to look asked its hospital directors for This is not just Maye's imag- For them, VA has established of their lower bodies, no longer
nd I did-and saw that both their observations on Vietnam ination. Louis Harris, in a 1971 a corps of "prosthetics represent- will be sidestepped in VA hos-
eet were gone. 'But son,' he veterans coming into their insti- public opinion survey for the atives" - counselors equipped to pitals.
confided, 'you can still have a
family'."
MAYER, A BREEZY, hand-
some young man who walks
without crutches or cane on two
artificial legs, now is president
of a relatively new but v e r y
active organization called the Na-
tional Association of Concerned
Veterans.
He travels across the country,
talking about a better deal for
Vietnam vets, especially in
schooling and jobs.
Mayer has had his share of
physical problems, but has im-
mersed himself in his work. He
told a magazine interviewer re-
tutions. The comments were mix-
ed, but there were a number in
this vein:
* Three out of five young vet-
erans interviewed-. . . were em-
bittered, unsettled, generally dis-
trustful and showed inability to
find meaning in the future."
0 "The Vietnam War exper-
ience, with the conflict of state-
ments for and against the war
by various social, political and
educational leaders, has had an
especially brutalizing effect on
many of the young, immature
Vietnam veterans."
FOR DISABLED veterans out-
side the hospitals, a lot depends
VA, found that "the whole ques-
tion of treatment of returning
veterans is a serious burden on
the conscience of the American
public."
MAYER NOTES other reac-
tions:
"Being handicapped, you see
people who try to avoid you or
to give you a 'buddy-buddy' rou-
advise veterans on all their prob-
lems, but particularly able to un-
derstand the needs of persons
who have lost arms or legs. All
prosthetics representatives are
amputees themselves.
FOR PARALYZED patients,
there is "team" treatment involv-
ing everyone dealing with the pa-
tient.
"When I came to, a chaplain asked me where
I was hit. I said that I had lost my right foot.
He asked me to look and I did and I saw that
both feet were gone. 'But son,' he confided,
'you can still have a family'."
tine. I just want to get across
that the disabled aren't differ-
ent, they're people."
Essie Morgan, VA's chief of
socioeconomic rehabilitation for
spinal cord injury (SCI)
patients, says the men she
deals with usually come around
to adopt an affirmative attitude
abot their situation:
"From somewhere, they seem
to garner the feeling that they
have done something for their
country."
THE SCI PATIENTS who can
- most paraplegics and a few
quadriplegics - roll about t h e
hallways at Castle Point in hand-
driven and powered wheelchairs.
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One obvious advantage of this is
that hospital workers with less
medical training than doctors can
be given factual information
about the SCI patient's problems,
and they in torn can pass on to
the doctors their own observa-
tions about the patients.
Essie Morgan is enthusiastic
about a two-year-old program to
move SCI patients whose medical
conditions have stabilized from
hospitals to their homes, where
they are regularly visited by doc-
tors, nurses and therapists.
This was started in four cent-
ers and could be expanded to
eight more if funds are made
available.
BUDGET CUTS this year make
that unlikely.
One of the problems of paraly-
sis that formerly was treated in
whispers is the sexual function.
"THIS WAS a never-never
land," she said. "It was gener-
ally felt to be a taboo subject.
But researchers found that hun-
dreds of spinal cord-injured men
not only could have erections and
satisfactory sex, but could sire
children."
Marriage also is a problem that
Mrs. Morgan and her associates
try to face, counseling both vet-
erans and wives and fiances. She
said it was her experience that
"good marriages" begun before
the veteran was hurt tend to
continue after the injury, and
that breakups which occur
"would have happened anyway."
She and her counselors work
as closely as possible with pa-
tients and their finances w h o
are considering marriage.
THE VA "SOURCE BOOK"
says marriages after the paraly-
tic injury "have a better prog-
nosis than those made before it.
This is because the marriage has
been negotiated between t w o
people who know exactly what
they are contracting to do."
Jim Maye, who is married, said
his observation is that "short
time" marriages entered into
before a serviceman left f or
combat are the most likely to
break up when the vet returns
paralyzed.
But, he says, statistics s h o w
that "the divorce rate is less than
normal for-marriages entered in-
to after spinal cord injury."
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5 s a e - . -
The Summer Daily
wishes to announce:
The last day 'of publication
for the Spring Term will be
WEDNESDAY, 27 JUNE 1973
We will resume publication
for the Summer Term
TUESDAY, 10 JULY 1973
(Display and Classified advertising deadlines will
be: Noon, Monday, 9 July for the Tuesday issue.)
I