has abstract
| - UCLA Operation Mend is a medical partnership established in October 2007 between Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and the V.A.-Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System that provides reconstructive surgery to U.S. military personnel that have been severely wounded during service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The project aims to serve as a model for other medical institutions interested in helping wounded service members. The project was developed by Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center board member and philanthropist Ronald A. Katz, who was moved to develop Operation Mend after he saw a story about U.S. Marine Aaron Mankin who experienced disfiguring injuries after a road-side bomb ripped through their vehicle on a convoy in Iraq. Mankin would later be Operation Mend’s first patient. As of 2011, 53 military patients from various military branches had surgeries led by Timothy A. Miller, M.D., Chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCLA, who is also a military veteran. Operation Mend procedures include: plastic surgery, orthopaedic reconstruction, urology and otolaryngology to reconstruct severely damaged limbs, radiation oncology, dermatology, neurology, ophthalmology and medical tattooing. Additionally, the project has included the Maxillofacial/Dentistry Department at UCLA, where several patients have had new prosthetic ears designed for them. Operation Mend patients also have access to the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, which includes access to the program's mental wellness program, which incorporates neurologic, neuropsychiatric, and psychiatric evaluations and treatment plans. (en)
|