BOSTON, MA- PFC Vincent Mannion, was 19-years-old when he went to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne. He was just three-and-a-half weeks into a tour when on patrol with his unit, a house loaded with explosives collapsed on top of him in March of 2007.
The blast caused a severe traumatic brain injury, often called this war's 'signature injury.' Vincent also had two major blood clots in his brain, shrapnel lodged in his chest and his arm was badly damaged. Through a series of surgeries at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed Hospital doctors were able to repair some of the physical trauma. However Vincent was going to need months of multidisciplinary rehabilitation to relearn how to speak and walk.
Vincent's parents, Jeff and Maura Broduer, natives of Hyannis, Massachusetts, had been petitioning for Vincent to have his rehabilitation closer to home due to the duration of the stay required for his treatment. Through careful collaboration between the Department of Defense and care managers at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, eventually the Department of Defense gave approval and Vincent was the first New England soldier to get approval for private hospital care for severe TBI.
At Spaulding, Vincent worked diligently with the Traumatic Brain Injury clinical rehabilitation team everyday over many long months. Under the supervision of Dr. Heechin Chae, Brain Injury Program Director, his caregivers and family noticed slow but steady progress. Each day his family would comment that felt they were getting some more of their Vincent back. 'From the damage of the TBI, multiple areas of his brain were shut down. Through innovative medication trials and multidisciplinary therapies, Vincent has been able to progress to the point of talking, dressing himself, and walking with brace. The extent of his recovery is nothing short of remarkable,' said Chae.
Vincent's successful case has enabled Spaulding to build collaborations with The Department of Defense and become a resource on the subject of TBI. Leveraging its world-renowned expertise on the subject of TBI, Spaulding has begun collaborating with the Neuro Trauma programs at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Also Spaulding is now an approved center of treatment by the Department of Defense for some of the severe TBI cases of returning soldiers from the Northeast, so that they can be closer to families during treatment. Vincent will be discharged on Tuesday May 27th at 1:30 pm with a special send off ceremony by the Spaulding staff, at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital main campus in Boston. As the first soldier treated for severe TBI by private care in New England, his case has been a model of success, which has allowed other soldiers and families to follow in his path.
'Spaulding is proud to be at the fore front of addressing the needs of our wounded warriors. We look forward to collaborating further with our colleagues in the military on care and research. Our goal is to facilitate the best possible outcomes for our returning heroes by providing Spaulding's 35 years of expertise with severe TBI as a resource to the military as needed,' said Spaulding spokesman Tim Sullivan.
About the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Network
A member of Partners HealthCare, The Spaulding Network includes its main campus, a 196-bed facility, located in Boston, MA, and eight outpatient sites throughout the Greater Boston area. Spaulding is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School as well as the official rehabilitation hospital of the New England Patriots. Spaulding is the only rehabilitation hospital in New England continually ranked since 1995 by U.S. News and World Report in its Best Hospitals survey. For more information, please visit www.spauldingrehab.org.
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