TVs for SAMMC
10/17/13
Thanks to a surprising series of connections, Soldiers' Angels is working to make a difference in the challenging recovery journey of severely-burned military patients at the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC). On Veterans Day, Soldiers' Angels held a luncheon with the SA Board of Trustees and key staff members of SAMMC, pledging to furnish the Burn ICU individual rooms with TVs to provide smiles that will help patients cope.
"I can't imagine what I would've done without a TV in my room, just me and my thoughts…yeah, that would've been really tough", said SFC Amadore P. a former in-patient at SAMMC. A TV can be an enormous help to a severely-burned patient who will likely face months of very difficult in-hospital treatment.
The project will provide a TV for each of 16 new rooms in the Burn ICU that do not currently have one. Due to stringent standards of sterilization required in a burn unit and the need for electronics to interface with bedside controls, anything introduced into the unit must meet specs not attained by conventional TVs, which results in a cost that far exceeds the cost of an average TV set.
The project will provide a TV for each of 16 new rooms in the Burn ICU that do not currently have one. Due to stringent standards of sterilization required in a burn unit and the need for electronics to interface with bedside controls, anything introduced into the unit must meet specs not attained by conventional TVs, which results in a cost that far exceeds the cost of an average TV set.
For the patients it impacts, this project is huge, but it all began with a small conversation. Richard, an Army Reservist who Soldiers' Angels was able to help as he transitioned from Active Duty, recently started working at the SAMMC emergency room, discovered the lack of TVs in a chance conversation with fellow medical personnel at SAMMC. A few days later, he stopped by the Soldiers' Angels Support Center in San Antonio and told his friends there about the situation. Immediately, Soldiers' Angels began laying the groundwork to meet the need.
