Bowling Benefits PA Fisher House
by Jessie Seyfer

San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, May 15, 2005

Raymond Warren has no memory of the entire week that preceded his getting shot by a rocket-propelled grenade last June in central Iraq.

But the 23-year-old Marine lance corporal knows for sure that when he came out of a coma that lasted several weeks, his mother and girlfriend were at his side, and they have been a crucial part of his recovery. Without them, "it would have been a lot harder than it was,'' he said.  bsp;bsp;bsp;bsp;

On Saturday -- with shrapnel still in his body and a smile on his face -- Warren was bowling shoulder-to-shoulder with more than 100 Silicon Valley tech employees at Cadence Design Systems' annual Stars and Strikes benefit tournament. The event at San Jose's AMF Oakridge Lanes raised more than $1 million to build a Fisher House next to Palo Alto's Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

Much like Ronald McDonald Houses for families of ailing children, Fisher Houses offer families of wounded military personnel a place to stay while their loved ones receive medical treatment.

Palo Alto's VA hospital has a specialized unit for traumatic brain injuries, and has treated more than 300 patients since the United States began operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Kerri Childress, a hospital spokeswoman. Those who have been recently wounded are often flown to Palo Alto after undergoing surgery at major military hospital hubs like Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Childress said.

Because the Palo Alto VA provides long-term therapy -- such as for post-traumatic stress, blindness and neurological injuries -- it's all the more important for families to have an inexpensive place to stay, Childress said.

For instance, Warren said his mother found a motel that would put her up for $60 a night. That's a bargain for Silicon Valley, but a major financial burden once the days add up.

The Fisher House Foundation, based in Maryland, will match the money raised by the Cadence benefit, allowing groundbreaking on Palo Alto's 21-suite Fisher House to begin in the next two months, said Dave Coker, the foundation's executive director.

The evolution of warfare has created a new category of injuries known as "polytrauma,'' Coker said. Military personnel who may not have survived in past conflicts are now dealing with brain injuries, burns and amputations as well as the psychological effects of combat. These are difficult wounds to heal, but with a Fisher House in place, at least the injured don't have to worry over how their families are faring, he said.

"We've always believed that a family's love is good medicine,'' Coker said.

Palo Alto's VA facility also serves the continuing medical needs of veterans from before the current military conflicts, and in fact houses the VA system's largest hospice facility, Childress said.

"I've seen old women scrunched up in a hospital bed next to their husbands, who they've been married to for 50 years,'' she said. "Wouldn't it be so much better if wives like that had somewhere to stay?''

Also on Saturday, the South Bay Blue Star Moms, an organization of mothers of women and men in the military, held a walkathon to benefit the Palo Alto Fisher House project.