From the Editor
In an Instant: A Legacy Beyond 10 Years
Carol Toussie Weingarten, PhD, RN, ANEF
A decade ago, I was sitting laptop to laptop with my husband in the
kitchen of our home, when an e-mail from the Society for Vascular
Surgery (SVS) changed our lives. The United States was involved in
the conflict in Iraq, and in 2008 the casualties were heavy. Through
the SVS, the military was recruiting civilian vascular surgeons to
work on the healthcare team caring for ill and wounded American
and Coalition troops transported from Iraq to Landstuhl Regional
Medical Center (LRMC), the American military hospital in Germany.
“This e-mail sounds like it is looking for me,” said my husband,
Michael S. Weingarten, a vascular and trauma surgeon, “... but I’m
not going without you.” We volunteered together. Mike was accepted
within a day. The U.S. Army sent me a beautifully worded rejection
letter stating there was “no short-term nursing program.”
By chance, I was registered for the October 2008 PSNA Summit,
“Heroes Helping Heroes: Military Nursing.” I arrived despondent
over my rejection. Thinking of the advice I would have given my stu-
dents, I shared my story with PSNA CEO Betsy Snook who did what
Betsy does so well—she made networking possible by introducing me
to the keynote speaker, General Deborah Wheeling, who asked me to
e-mail her after the Summit. Lee Woodruff, the wife of journalist Bob
Woodruff, who had been severely injured by an improvised explosive
device (IED) while on assignment in Iraq, was also a keynote speaker
and the author of In an Instant, which detailed their experience of
injury and recovery. She spoke with passion and commitment, not
only to her husband’s situation but to the experiences of active duty
military, veterans, and their families. I stood in line for Lee to auto-
graph the book I had purchased and the chance to speak with her
for a few minutes. Despite our setting, she listened to my story and
said with a certainty I could not imagine at that time, “There will be
a place for you. Don’t give up now or ever.” Following the Summit,
General Wheeling graciously e-mail introduced me to COL Beverly
Cornett, Deputy Commander and Director of Nursing at LRMC.
Indeed, no short-term nursing program materialized. However, COL
Cornett offered me the opportunity to come as a civilian volunteer
working with the chaplains in the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center
at LRMC. Mike and I went together for what turned out to be two
weeks during each of six summers from 2009 through 2014 when the
Combat Casualty Program ended along with President Obama’s with-
drawal of American troops. During that time, Mike and I witnessed
truly awesome care delivered by the joint services in a medical center
where patients were transported across continents and staff was ever-
changing.
Issue 73, 1 2018 Pennsylvania Nurse 4
Photographs from Dr. Weingar-
ten’s time at LRMC. In the top
photo, Dr. Weingarten shows
adaptive clothing used by pa-
tients with injuries, illnesses, and
surgeries requiring casts, crutch-
es, wheelchairs, and vacs. These
clothes have been deconstructed
and put back together with
Velcro seams rather than tight
stitching. Patients were grate-
ful for the adaptive shirts which
allowed them to dress in “real”
clothes during recovery. The bot-
tom photo shows a handmade
blanket donated to service men
and women.