MILITARY UPDATE
Fisher Houses home away from home for sick, injured service members
By Tom Philpott
"It's unbelievable that places like this exist," said Brian Alaniz, 29, a Navy hospital man who lost part of his right leg and suffered other wounds just four days after President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq last March.
Alaniz is talking about Fisher Houses. He knew nothing about them before he was wounded. But he saw what comfort zones they can be for military families when loved ones need care at military medical centers, or select VA hospitals, far from home.
The usual mix of Fisher House guests are active duty families, many of them with children needing special care, and an older population of retirees, veterans and their spouses. About 8,500 families a year use Fisher Houses, stay an average of 12 days and pay daily room rates of $8 to $12.
This year, so far, families of 200 wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan have joined the mix. Fisher Houses for them are a kind of sanctuary to help transition from war to the rest of their lives. For these guests, rooms are free, said Jim Weiskopf of the Fisher House Foundation. Their stays can run into weeks or months, given the long road back for some.
Alaniz entered the Navy in April 2001. In corpsman school, he met his wife-to-be, Ammi, now 21.They married on July 4 that year while Alaniz was in field medicine training with Marines. They both were assigned to Twentynine Palms, Calif., but Alaniz soon deployed with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.
In the war, the battalion raced toward Basra to protect oil fields. Marines were short on supplies, Alaniz said, including ambulances. Corpsmen squeezed into whatever vehicle had room.
On March 21, about noon, their convoy pulled off road into a desert area that another Marine company had just walked through. As they stretched their legs and opened meal packets, they heard an explosion. Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, beside his Humvee 20 yards from Alaniz, had stepped on a mine. Alaniz grabbed a medical bag, ran toward his injured supply chief, gave the bag to a physician and raced back for a stretcher and trauma kit. While on one knee, assembling a suction device, Alaniz moved his foot and detonated another mine.
He rolled onto his back. His right leg felt like it was on fire. He looked down and saw the laces of his boot now faced him. When a physician called for trauma shears to cut away his pants, Alaniz handed him his pair. The doctor asked for a bandage and Alaniz pulled one from his vest. A shot of morphine took forever to kick in, he said.
Alaniz and Alva were evacuated by ambulance and then helicopter to Kuwait. A surgeon there told Alaniz that bones below the knee were too shattered to repair. He had to amputate.
"When he told me that everything kind of seemed like a dream," he said. He also had shrapnel wound in his buttocks and upper legs.
"I was thinking about my wife, if she had been told I was injured," he said. "We didn't know a lot of people in Twentynine Palms. Was there anybody there to help her get through this?"
After surgery, Alaniz was flown to Germany. He spoke by phone with family. In one call, Ammi explained that she and Alaniz's family would meet him at his next stop, Washington D.C. They all had rooms there, near the military hospital, and for free.
"My wife tried to explain to me what Fisher Houses were," said Alaniz. "I just didn't understand."
But his family was there as promised March 30.
"It meant a lot to be able to see them and to let them know that I was OK," Alaniz said.
His wife stayed in the Fisher House at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., the hospital where Alaniz spent his first weeks. His parents stayed at the Fisher House next to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Alaniz one day was allowed to visit.
"My mom cooked," he said. "That's when I really realized what it was — a home away from home." His parents stayed three weeks.
That was the vision of New York building contractor and philanthropist Zachary Fisher and his wife Elizabeth. Between 1990 and his death in 1999, Fisher had 26 houses built for military and veteran families, taking his cue from Ronald McDonald homes for families of ill children. But the Fishers wanted to expand on their history of helping service families.
Each home has eight bedrooms plus a kitchen, dining room, living room and laundry. Six more have opened since Fisher's death, financed now though fund-raising, private contributions and the Combined Federal Campaign. New homes are being built at a pace of three every two years.
"When we started, it was envisioned that families would stay in the houses while service members were in the hospital. More and more service members are outpatients," Weiskopf said. "Consequently, more of them also stay in Fisher homes."
Alaniz did. When transferred to Walter Reed for physical therapy, he and Ammi settled in the room vacated by his parents. They stayed four months. Now they rent a townhouse. Alaniz is on limited duty until a medical review board next year decides if he can stay in service.
The Fisher House Web site is at www.fisherhouse.org. Its toll free number is (888) 294-8560. Letters or checks can be sent to Fisher House Foundation, 1401 Rockville Pike, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852.
Questions, comments and suggestions are welcomed. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com. Or visit Tom Philpott's Web site.
