Worth It

One of war's worst wounds is a severed spinal cord. If it does not kill him, it paralyzes a man below the injury, makes him helpless as a baby. World War II left the U.S. with some 2,000 such men. Doctors call them paraplegics; but they have less euphemistic names for themselves. At one time or another, nearly every paraplegic wishes he were dead.

It is hard for many of them to believe that they can probably regain independence, of a sort. But Boston's Surgeon Donald Munro, who has seen it happen, is sure that they can. Says he: "If he is properly treated, every patient with a spinal cord injury who is intelligent and cooperative and has the use of the shoulder, arm and hand muscles can be made ambulatory . . . lead a normal social life and . . . earn a satisfactory living."

But progress is agonizingly slow. Up to now, some paraplegics have spent most of their time fighting infections, undergoing surgery. Walking, if finally mastered, is a titanic effort of shoulder muscles -- of braces weighing 15 lbs. which take 15 minutes to put on. Most of the patients prefer to stick to the wheelchair, or to bed.

What paraplegics fear most is spending empty months or years forgotten in Veterans' Administration hospitals. The paraplegics at Army's England General Hos pital last fortnight published the first issue of a tiny, one-page newspaper which asked editorially for "one centrally located hospital to treat all such cases." Paraplegics in Brigham (Utah), New York City and Indiana wanted the same thing.

Last week came news that the wish was granted. Instead of one, there will be five centers with a capacity of 200 to 300 each -- at Boston. Richmond, Chicago, Los Angeles and a yet unnamed place in the South. The Army will run them at first, eventually turn them over to the V.A.

The men will get special nursing, deli cate surgery, education to their full men tal and muscular capacity. When a man gets out (and the experts think that most will, eventually), his equipment-bed, wheelchair, braces -- will go with him.

Says Colonel R. Glenwood Spurling, boss of the new all-out program: "It will be extravagant, it will take a lot of money and a lot of people, but it will be worth it."

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