Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Roy Chellew, center, a 21-year retired Navy veteran, walks with the help of a Lite Gait that helps a patient to balance and walk at the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center’s new physical therapy satellite clinic at the Iron Mountain hospital. VA physical therapist Josh Early, right, and equipment company representative Monika Patel assist Chellew.
IRON MOUNTAIN — Veterans from around the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin staying at the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center in Iron Mountain for short-term rehabilitation or long-term care will now have additional physical therapy options.
The VA medical center recently opened a physical therapy, or PT, satellite clinic in its Community Living Center, the medical center’s long-term care and short-term rehabilitation unit.
The new PT satellite clinic offers inpatient residents additional rehabilitation opportunities with the newest, state-of-the art rehabilitation equipment on the center’s main floor, a news release said. Equipment includes recumbent steppers, upper and lower extremity conditioning bikes and full-power, adjustable parallel bars.
“This equipment will provide veterans with the most up-to-date rehabilitation techniques for recovery from brain and spinal cord injuries,” said Josh Early, a physical therapist at the VA Medical Center. Early was working with retired Navy veteran Roy Chellew, the first patient in the satellite PT clinic.
“Our primary goal is to provide the highest quality physical medicine and rehab care in as close to a home-like environment as possible,” said Jim Zeigler, chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation. “This satellite clinic in the Community Living Center does just that.”
