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Therapy clinic provides magic touch to injured

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Terri Barriere
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Preparing Airmen to return to work after an injury is similar to getting a race car back to the track after a pit stop. Maintenance must be quick, precise and thorough, both minimizing the time spent away from duty and maximizing the quality of care.

The staff here in the physical and occupational therapy clinic are a major part of that rehabilitative process.

As "gatekeepers" for orthopedic services, the staff screen, evaluate and rehabilitate surgical and non-surgical orthopedic patients.

"The surgeons are here to treat serious trauma patients, not minor injuries," said Lt. Col. Gary Sherwood, the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy element leader. "We can order medications, labs and manage the patients."

The clinic's mission is simple; if a patient looses motion in a limb, they try to restore it. If a patient has pain, they try to get rid of it.

Colonel Sherwood said they accomplish this by using therapeutic exercises such as heat therapy, ice packs and electricity to restore patients back to 100 percent.

Due to the high operations tempo in the hospital, the PT clinic doesn't require the same referral process as the others stateside. Here, the patients have direct access to the clinic, and are seen on a walk-in basis.

"People are too busy to leave work for minor aches and pains," said Staff Sgt. Zachariah Coyner, physical medicine technician. "Typically the patients we treat are the ones with injuries so significant they can't do their job. This is definitely not a spa."

While therapeutic massages are available in some instances, they aren't the clinic's main function.

"A lot of people have the misconception we are just here to give massages, but they don't realize massages are a relatively short term fix, and while we do give them, it's not our primary focus," said Colonel Sherwood. "We don't just rub necks and backs."


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