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Washington Post
May 15, 2008
Pg. V1
Segways Presented to Veterans Injured in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Mark Berman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Jeffrey Adams, a first lieutenant with the Louisiana National Guard, was on patrol in Baghdad on Nov. 7, 2004, when a makeshift bomb detonated 10 feet away.
"I looked down, and my leg was gone," said Adams, 28. His left leg was later amputated above the knee, replaced with a prosthetic that now bears an Army sticker.
After spending 6 1/2 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adams returned home on crutches to finish a degree in chemical engineering.
Three years later, Adams is all smiles -- and he is much more mobile, thanks to his new Segway.
Adams was one of 29 wounded veterans who received Segways last week in a ceremony at Army Navy Country Club in Arlington. The transporters were donated by a group called Segs4Vets, which gives Segways to members of the military or veterans who were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and who have a permanent disability and difficulty walking.
"It's amazing," Adams said. "It's a lot more freedom. For a young male, you have your friends who want to do things you can't do feasibly. You feel like you're holding them back. This helps."
Segs4Vets is run by Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, a charity that champions barrier-free design and emerging technologies. Founded in 2004 by Jerry Kerr, Leonard Timm and Fred Kaplan, the organization is all-volunteer, with overhead paid by board members. There's no formal fundraising mechanism, but the organization raises money through word of mouth, officials said. Donations can be made through the organization's Web site, http:www.draft.org.
Although the Segway was not designed for disabled people, "we found . . . it was a wonderful opportunity to have mobility [while] standing," said Kerr, who shattered his C4 vertebrae in a diving accident 10 years ago. Kerr, who was a real estate developer before the accident, preordered a Segway before they became available and first got on the device in 2003.
Kerr, who lives in St. Louis, said that when children see him in a wheelchair, they feel sorry for him. But when they see him on a Segway, they want one. "This doesn't draw attention to my disability," he said. "When I'm in this, your first thought isn't of my disabilities."
"This," Kerr said, "doesn't define us as a disabled person. This is such a perfect solution."
So far, Segs4Vets has given away 150 Segways, including 35 at a presentation in San Antonio in April. The charity expects to donate a total of 250 this year. Segway has no affiliation with Segs4Vets, because the transporters are not a federally approved medical device. The charity buys Segways from dealerships; models sold at TriState Segway in Ashburn cost $5,145 and $5,660.
The military issued Segs4Vets a blanket waiver last year to allow a gift in excess of $1,000 to severely injured active-duty members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, easing an early challenge for the charity. And officials at the charity said they hope that health insurance companies will eventually see the value of a Segway, even though it isn't a medical device.
The program has donated Segways to four military medical centers, including the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and Walter Reed in the District, to introduce the technology to the injured. Those locations and others in San Antonio and San Diego allow medical personnel to assess and train candidates for the Segs4Vets program.
Disabled soldiers and veterans apply online and are turned down only if they are unable to use the Segway. Some people have hesitated to apply for the program, doubting that they would receive such an expensive device, Kerr said.
The charity also hopes to establish additional training and assessment programs in other parts of the country.
After the Segways were presented at the May 7 ceremony in Arlington, Adams took his for a spin outside the country club. The Segway can travel at up to 12.5 mph, which "if you've been in a wheelchair, it's really fast," Kerr said. "If you've had the ability to run and you lost the ability to run, to feel the wind in your hair. . . . It's exhilarating."
Adams, who lives in Alabama and works for Boeing, said the ceremony felt like a reunion. Illustrating his point, Army Staff Sgt. Dale Beatty approached on his own new Segway moments later, calling Adams "Alabama," and the two bumped Segways like a couple of moose butting antlers.
Beatty, of North Carolina, served a decade and was injured eight days after Adams. He was west of Bayji, Iraq, and riding in a truck that hit an antitank mine. He was treated at Walter Reed at the same time as Adams and now has prosthetics below both knees. At one point during the ceremony, he stepped off his Segway to help another veteran into a wheelchair.
Beatty said the Segway will allow him to do things that require a lot of walking, like going to an amusement park with his children. "It'll extend my stamina," he said.
Army Cpl. Joel Dulashanti, 21, was looking forward to the freedom his Segway would give him.
He has had 26 surgeries since he was shot three times along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border May 4, 2007. He was serving as a sniper. His right leg was amputated above the knee, and he suffered severe abdominal damage and an injury to his left knee.
Dulashanti faces more surgery, and he wants to use his Segway to save the energy he has been using walking around Walter Reed, where he has four hours of physical therapy a day, followed by hours of meetings and other commitments.
"I don't get to get things done because I waste all my energy walking three miles at the hospital," Dulashanti said. But thanks to the transporter, that should change. "I can even take my dogs on a walk now."
Dulashanti, who lives in Silver Spring with his wife, Lindsey, wants to attend Johns Hopkins University to study molecular and cellular biology.
After the presentation, a group picture of the recipients was taken outside the country club. Watching them line up, Kerr beamed.
"They got big smiles on their faces," he said. "I love it. It doesn't get any better than this for us."
May 15, 2008
Pg. V1
Segways Presented to Veterans Injured in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Mark Berman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Jeffrey Adams, a first lieutenant with the Louisiana National Guard, was on patrol in Baghdad on Nov. 7, 2004, when a makeshift bomb detonated 10 feet away.
"I looked down, and my leg was gone," said Adams, 28. His left leg was later amputated above the knee, replaced with a prosthetic that now bears an Army sticker.
After spending 6 1/2 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adams returned home on crutches to finish a degree in chemical engineering.
Three years later, Adams is all smiles -- and he is much more mobile, thanks to his new Segway.
Adams was one of 29 wounded veterans who received Segways last week in a ceremony at Army Navy Country Club in Arlington. The transporters were donated by a group called Segs4Vets, which gives Segways to members of the military or veterans who were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and who have a permanent disability and difficulty walking.
"It's amazing," Adams said. "It's a lot more freedom. For a young male, you have your friends who want to do things you can't do feasibly. You feel like you're holding them back. This helps."
Segs4Vets is run by Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, a charity that champions barrier-free design and emerging technologies. Founded in 2004 by Jerry Kerr, Leonard Timm and Fred Kaplan, the organization is all-volunteer, with overhead paid by board members. There's no formal fundraising mechanism, but the organization raises money through word of mouth, officials said. Donations can be made through the organization's Web site, http:www.draft.org.
Although the Segway was not designed for disabled people, "we found . . . it was a wonderful opportunity to have mobility [while] standing," said Kerr, who shattered his C4 vertebrae in a diving accident 10 years ago. Kerr, who was a real estate developer before the accident, preordered a Segway before they became available and first got on the device in 2003.
Kerr, who lives in St. Louis, said that when children see him in a wheelchair, they feel sorry for him. But when they see him on a Segway, they want one. "This doesn't draw attention to my disability," he said. "When I'm in this, your first thought isn't of my disabilities."
"This," Kerr said, "doesn't define us as a disabled person. This is such a perfect solution."
So far, Segs4Vets has given away 150 Segways, including 35 at a presentation in San Antonio in April. The charity expects to donate a total of 250 this year. Segway has no affiliation with Segs4Vets, because the transporters are not a federally approved medical device. The charity buys Segways from dealerships; models sold at TriState Segway in Ashburn cost $5,145 and $5,660.
The military issued Segs4Vets a blanket waiver last year to allow a gift in excess of $1,000 to severely injured active-duty members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, easing an early challenge for the charity. And officials at the charity said they hope that health insurance companies will eventually see the value of a Segway, even though it isn't a medical device.
The program has donated Segways to four military medical centers, including the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and Walter Reed in the District, to introduce the technology to the injured. Those locations and others in San Antonio and San Diego allow medical personnel to assess and train candidates for the Segs4Vets program.
Disabled soldiers and veterans apply online and are turned down only if they are unable to use the Segway. Some people have hesitated to apply for the program, doubting that they would receive such an expensive device, Kerr said.
The charity also hopes to establish additional training and assessment programs in other parts of the country.
After the Segways were presented at the May 7 ceremony in Arlington, Adams took his for a spin outside the country club. The Segway can travel at up to 12.5 mph, which "if you've been in a wheelchair, it's really fast," Kerr said. "If you've had the ability to run and you lost the ability to run, to feel the wind in your hair. . . . It's exhilarating."
Adams, who lives in Alabama and works for Boeing, said the ceremony felt like a reunion. Illustrating his point, Army Staff Sgt. Dale Beatty approached on his own new Segway moments later, calling Adams "Alabama," and the two bumped Segways like a couple of moose butting antlers.
Beatty, of North Carolina, served a decade and was injured eight days after Adams. He was west of Bayji, Iraq, and riding in a truck that hit an antitank mine. He was treated at Walter Reed at the same time as Adams and now has prosthetics below both knees. At one point during the ceremony, he stepped off his Segway to help another veteran into a wheelchair.
Beatty said the Segway will allow him to do things that require a lot of walking, like going to an amusement park with his children. "It'll extend my stamina," he said.
Army Cpl. Joel Dulashanti, 21, was looking forward to the freedom his Segway would give him.
He has had 26 surgeries since he was shot three times along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border May 4, 2007. He was serving as a sniper. His right leg was amputated above the knee, and he suffered severe abdominal damage and an injury to his left knee.
Dulashanti faces more surgery, and he wants to use his Segway to save the energy he has been using walking around Walter Reed, where he has four hours of physical therapy a day, followed by hours of meetings and other commitments.
"I don't get to get things done because I waste all my energy walking three miles at the hospital," Dulashanti said. But thanks to the transporter, that should change. "I can even take my dogs on a walk now."
Dulashanti, who lives in Silver Spring with his wife, Lindsey, wants to attend Johns Hopkins University to study molecular and cellular biology.
After the presentation, a group picture of the recipients was taken outside the country club. Watching them line up, Kerr beamed.
"They got big smiles on their faces," he said. "I love it. It doesn't get any better than this for us."