TARTAGLIONE URGES INJURED VETS TO VISIT MAGEE

HARRISBURG, December 12, 2007  – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione is urging elected officials and media outlets to spread the word that top-quality rehabilitation services are available to injured veterans in the Philadelphia region.

     Earlier this year, Magee Rehabilitation Hospital was granted approval by federal officials to begin treating veterans who suffer serious injuries in the global war on terror.  Still, hospital officials say many beds remain unused, despite the tremendous number of injured veterans returning from the war and news reports of inadequate capacity in the Veteran’s Administration system.

     “Magee has highly trained medical professionals ready and willing to help,” Tartaglione wrote recently in a letter sent to state, local and federal officials. “As a former patient, I can attest to the high standard of excellence Magee provides to each and every patient.”

     Located at 16^th and Race Streets in Philadelphia, Magee is ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best rehabilitation hospitals in the country.  Hospital officials volunteered to go through the federal approval process because of what they called an “obligation to our troops.”

     With better treatment in the theater of operations, more lives are being saved on the battlefield.  That has resulted in an overwhelming number of seriously injured veterans returning home to rebuild their lives.  Their challenges fit the field of medicine in which Magee has built a stellar reputation.

     “Magee has a successful record in treating many civilian injuries that parallel the brain trauma, amputations, fractures, and compression injuries that our soldiers are sustaining in battle,” Tartaglione said.

     Tartaglione, who suffered a severe spinal chord injury in a 2003 boating accident was a patient at Magee, and was able to continue her busy schedule of Senate work on behalf of working families.

     Her letter to Senate colleagues is intended to spread the word among local veterans that one of America’s best hospitals is “ready and waiting” to treat America’s most honored patients.

     “Thousands of soldiers injured by bullets, bombs, explosives and other weapons of war expect and deserve the best medical treatment we can offer,” she wrote. “To offer less is unjust and immoral.”