{"id":20538,"date":"2013-05-16T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=20538"},"modified":"2013-05-16T14:00:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:00:44","slug":"challenges-of-u-s-female-veteran-amputees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/16\/challenges-of-u-s-female-veteran-amputees\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges Of U.S. Female Veteran Amputees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"USARMYWomanVeterans\"Film shows challenges of female veterans <\/span><\/b>Screening features amputee<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/b>Written by Tom Wilemon<\/a>-The Tennessean \u00a0Photo by Peter Williams<\/h6>\n

.<\/p>\n

Sue Downes was a driver and gunner in Afghanistan.<\/b>” “Sue Downes, the first female double amputee from the war in Afghanistan, will drive five hours from the small town where she lives in East Tennessee so she can share stories with other female veterans on Monday during the screening of a documentary.<\/p>\n

She is one of the stars of \u201cService: When Women Come Marching Home.\u201d The documentary chronicles eight veterans and the challenges they face \u2014 both physical and invisible. Fitted with prosthetics and able to fully walk, Downes said she is resilient but feels isolated living in her hometown of New Tazewell.<\/p>\n

Other than family, church members and her service dog Lyla, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any support really. The support that I have gotten has been from people outside the area, from outside the state to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downes, who served as a driver and gunner in Afghanistan, had both legs amputated below the knee after her Humvee hit land mines in 2005.<\/p>\n

From the beginning of her recovery, she has known that she would be different from the typical soldier amputee. Military\u00a0doctors<\/a>\u00a0at first did not have expertise in fitting prosthetics for a woman. Special coverings to resemble a female leg had to be ordered. Then there was the issue of fluctuating weight patterns \u2014 something that occurs more often in women than men.<\/p>\n

After coming home from Walter Reed ArmyMedical Center<\/a>\u00a0in Washington, D.C., she was barred from bringing her service dog into the VA hospital in Johnson City. Downes went back to Washington and testified before a congressional committee to get that rule changed. The film captures those moments.<\/p>\n

People shopping for groceries at the Food City in New Tazewell would never know Downes is a double amputee on a good day. On a bad day, they don\u2019t see her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s days I can\u2019t walk because I\u2019m in pain,\u201d Downes said. \u201cLyla brings me things. She can cut lights for me. She\u2019s there for comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a soldier, she had a good rapport with the men in her unit who helped save her life. Other female veterans weren\u2019t so fortunate, said filmmaker Marcia Rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter where we started in the conversation with women veterans, we almost always ended up with post-traumatic stress disorder and, unfortunately, too many times with military sexual trauma,\u201d Rock said.<\/p>\n

Contact Tom Wilemon at<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>twilemon@tennessean.com<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>or 615-726-5961.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article sent in out of concern by Marty Martel<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film shows challenges of female veterans Screening features amputee \u00a0Written by Tom Wilemon-The Tennessean \u00a0Photo by Peter Williams . Sue Downes was a driver and gunner in Afghanistan.” “Sue Downes, the first female double amputee from the war in Afghanistan, will drive five hours from the small town where she lives in East Tennessee so she can share stories with other female veterans on Monday during the screening of a documentary. She is one of the stars of \u201cService: When Women Come Marching Home.\u201d The documentary chronicles eight veterans and<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}