By Jennifer Reeger, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
Jun. 18–A five-year pilot project to treat wounded military personnel with traumatic brain injury has found a home in Johnstown.
Dr. George A. Zitnay, co-founder of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center who will serve as a national consultant for the program, will develop an assisted-living program at the Hiram G. Andrews Center in Johnstown.
The program will treat military members who have suffered severe to moderate brain trauma and need intensive rehabilitation after their hospital stays.
“They’re going to take a longer period of time to recover,” Zitnay said. “They’re going to need more intensive care. They’re going to need a lot of technical assistance with high-tech equipment.”
The unnamed center is expected to open in late fall with room for 25 patients.
“These are the individuals that go home and their parents are struggling and their wives are struggling because they have no help,” Zitnay said.
“A recent study found that nearly 320,000 U.S. military personnel who have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan reported a probable traumatic brain injury during deployment,” Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, said in a news release. “Traumatic brain injuries are the signature wound of this war, and we must provide our wounded warriors and veterans with first-class treatment and care. Our area has been at the forefront of this issue, and I’m pleased that Johnstown has been selected as the site for this pilot treatment program.”
The patients can stay up to a year, and their families will be able to stay in Johnstown for some periods of their treatment. Zitnay said a teleconference link will enable families to stay in touch and watch their loved one’s recovery.
Five beds will be set aside for respite care, allowing patients living at home to come for a month to give their families a break.
“That’s a very important service to have so that families feel they can get the rest and support they need,” Zitnay said.
The facility will be housed in space formerly occupied by a rehabilitation center, which Conemaugh Health System moved to another location.
“Frankly, you’d have to look hard and long to find a facility like that which is available. If we had to build a facility or retrofit a facility, it would be extremely exorbitant in terms of cost,” Zitnay said.
The center is working with the University of Pittsburgh School of Health Science and Rehabilitation on high-tech innovations for the facility.
“The goal here in this program is to get them as independent as possible. In other words, to get them so they can live with their families, to get them to be able to assist themselves, perhaps even be able to hold a job,” Zitnay said.
The center in Johnstown joins the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center’s network of 16 program sites across the United States and at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The sites have treated about 7,000 patients with traumatic brain injury.
The Veterans Administration has identified more than 187 veterans who are in need of the assisted-living program planned for Johnstown, Zitnay said.
Johnstown is also home to another site. Laurel Highlands Neuro-Rehabilitation Center offers a community reintegration program for military personnel, veterans and their dependents with traumatic brain injury.
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