For veterans with significant disabilities, prosthetic devices are more than low or high tech toys. Quite the opposite, they are extremely necessary products that replace body parts or functions lost by men and women while serving honorably in our military.

A prosthetic device, or prosthesis, is defined medically as an artificial substitute or replacement of a part of the body.

Because I am a spinal cord injured C-6 quadriplegic, for instance, I have partial movement in my arms and my hands––but no movement whatsoever in my fingers. So to type this piece and other documents, I use a plastic cuff that fits over the middle of my hand and which has a standard yellow pencil taped to it, eraser end toward the keyboard. This allows me to use the old “hunt and peck” typing system. My penciled cuff functions as a finger substitute. Admittedly, I’m slower than most typists, but I still get the job done.

As a C-6 quad, I cannot walk at all so I also use a wheelchair and I’ve been using one for almost 44 years. Over that period of time, I’ve had three manually-operated wheelchairs. I still use manual wheelchair # 3 some of the time, but like a few of my nondisabled peers whose knees are wearing out, my shoulder pain is screaming at me much of the time so I was issued my first power chair in 2000. Today, I’m on my second power chair. I use it extensively in the cold weather months or when I know that I have to cover a lot of ground to get to where I’m going.

Another prosthetic device that I used many times in my quadriplegic life is a sliding or transfer board. I used my transfer board exclusively to move from bed to wheelchair and vice versa until 2005. But after then, I had no lift or slide strength left in my shoulders. So VA issued me a ceiling-mounted lift device. While it works like a charm and it has never failed to operate, the trade-off was a partial loss of independence since my spouse or part-time home attendant must place the lift strap underneath me and operate the control that moves me from bed to wheelchair in the morning and back again at night.

Maybe some readers out there can see where I’m going here. While I’m not inclined to list every prosthetic device I’ve used in the past or today, there are great advantages to them and they are critical to many veterans’ quality of life.

I don’t know how many people will read this and gain a better understanding of the importance of prosthetic devices for disabled vets. I do hope that some of them are Senators, Congressional representatives, and more importantly, budget cutters––lest they forget the contributions of veterans with disabilities.

I also hope that Congress will pass legislation to ensure that veterans know their rights when seeking prosthetic and orthotic benefits through VA. H.R. 805 would require that VA post in each prosthetics and orthotics clinic, in an accessible format, the rights of injured and amputee veterans. Ensuring that veterans and VA staff know the rights of veterans accessing these benefits will result in the provision of high quality care.

Terry Moakley
Chair of the VetsFirst Committee