Wounded Warrior Inspires Fellow Vets

Wounded Warrior Inspires Fellow Vets

November 14, 2011
Armed Forces Press Service
by Terri Moon Cronk

WASHINGTON -- Wounded veterans who come to the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center for their prosthetic care find the clinic there offers more than top-notch medicine.

They also find a compassionate caseworker in Tristan Wyatt, himself a wounded veteran who's lived the to-hell-and-back journey that proves there is life after losing a limb.

Wyatt has worn a prosthetic leg since shortly after an insurgent attack in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2003 left him and two of his six squad mates each without a leg.

As assistant chief of the prosthetics service, Wyatt helps introduce new veterans to the VA's program. Many, recognizing that he's overcome many of the same obstacles they now face, look to him for guidance.

"I spend a lot of time with them," Wyatt said. "And when they do ask, I tell them they'll have to let go of certain things or come to terms with them to assimilate back into 'the world back home.'"

Wyatt said severely wounded veterans know that losing a limb will shape many of their life experiences, but tells them the road ahead doesn't have to be a lonely one.

Through trial and error, Wyatt said he learned that getting a new prosthetic leg is about progression -- how to use it, what feels normal and what doesn't. He thought he had to live with the pain he felt, but found that adjustments or even new devices could mitigate the problem.

"When you're a new user," he tells patients, "you're not sure how it's supposed to feel or function or what a normal level of pain or discomfort is." If it hurts, he said, take the prosthetic off, relax, and look into an adjustment.
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