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A VERY SPECIAL DOG HELPS WOUNDED SOLDIER'S

REHABILITATION -- The VA has no program to provide

service dogs to help veterans with their rehab.

 

 

For two previous stories about Jim Benoit, click the links below...

http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%
20newsflashes%20MAR%2006/
newsflash03-03-2006-1.htm

http://www.vawatchdog.org/nf
NOV06/nf112106-7.htm

Today's story here... http://content.hampton
roads.com/story.cfm?story=131
847&ran=244346

Story below:

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Dog helps injured soldier's rehabilitation

By DANIEL MASSEY, NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE,
WASHINGTON

The technician wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Army Spc. Jim Benoit's arm and handed him a thermometer to stick under his tongue. n Benoit lay back on a stretcher as the technician slid him into the transparent tube of a hyperbaric chamber at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital outside Washington. It was the first in a series of oxygen treatments prescribed by doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to heal severe wounds on Benoit's backside caused by an improvised bomb in Baghdad nearly two years ago.

Benoit's black Labrador, Edison, did not like what he saw.

"He wanted to follow Jim into the tube," said Pam Benoit, 22, Jim's wife. "He doesn't like leaving Jim."

Edison put up a struggle, but Pam was able to drag him out of the room and into the hallway. It was one of the few times Edison has left Jim's side since the 25-year-old soldier got the dog to help with his rehabilitation.

Since the September 2005 bomb blast, Benoit has survived 80 surgeries, defied doctors' predictions that he would never walk again, gotten married and is preparing to move into a new home that volunteers in his hometown of Wharton, N.J., are building for him.

Surgeons, physical therapists, family and volunteer carpenters, roofers, plumbers and electricians have played pivotal roles in making all of that happen.

But there's been one other factor in Benoit's remarkable transformation: his four-legged friend, who flunked out of guide dog school because of a fondness for food.

Military personnel are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious injuries, including brain trauma, amputations and significant skin wounds due to car bombs and improvised explosive devices. Service members and health care workers say dogs could help in some cases with rehabilitation. But many of the 13,000 injured who will not return to duty may never have the opportunity.

While the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides some financial support for blind veterans to obtain guide dogs, there is no procedure to get service dogs for veterans who need help overcoming other types of injuries, said Terry Jemison, a VA spokesman.

Margaret Benoit, Jim's mother, found that out firsthand.

The moment Jim woke up from a medically induced coma at Walter Reed about a week after the bombing, she knew she had to get him a dog.

Her son had worked in a pet shop as a teenager. While on his first tour of duty in Iraq, he gave a home to a gray, shaggy-haired mutt that was roaming about an abandoned train station in Tikrit.

Margaret Benoit had read about how service dogs could help with rehabilitation and made it her mission to get one for her son.

"I held his hand and told him he was safe and in his own country, but I also told him I loved him and if he survived through this I would get him a puppy, any one he wanted."

It wasn't an easy promise to keep. Margaret Benoit tried and failed to get her son a dog through Walter Reed. She found organizations online that supply dogs to veterans, but she kept running into red tape.

Then, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., showed up at the hospital to visit wounded New Jersey soldiers, accompanied by Maj. William McKnight, an Army legislative liaison officer.

"They said if we had any problems to call them," she said. "One learned to ask for help at that point." S he pressed McKnight to help her find a dog for her injured son.

"This was the first time we had received a request for a service dog," McKnight said. "She said this dog is not only important physically, but it's also important mentally and emotionally."

McKnight did Google searches and found the names and numbers of trainers, kennels and organizations that help service members obtain dogs. He initially hit a roadblock because most agencies require the service member to travel to a kennel to train with the dog for a month or more, something Jim Benoit could not do because of his injuries.

Then he came across Jim Mathys, a 50-year-old former Air Force sergeant who grew up above a kennel in Columbus, Ohio, and who now runs Quality K-9 training school in Palmetto, Fla. He called Mathys and told him about Jim Benoit.

Less than two weeks later, Mathys called back and said he had found the perfect dog.

Edison was born Nov. 25, 2003, at a guide dog school in Palmetto, but his penchant for treats made him a poor fit as a companion to the blind. He got his name from the Miami Edison Lions Club, which sponsored him, and had received some training for a Special Forces soldier injured in combat, but that soldier could not take him for medical reasons.

Jim Benoit's injuries confined him to a wheelchair most of the time, but since he was also learning to walk again, Mathys trained Edison to be a dual-purpose service dog.

Using praise, not treats, he put the Labrador through basic obedience training. Then he taught him to retrieve objects, walk alongside the wheelchair and pull it up a ramp and get used to loud noises. He also showed Edison how to help Jim Benoit transfer to the bath and get up after a fall, as well as support him if he loses his balance while walking.

After six months of daily two-hour training sessions, Mathys deemed Edison fit to meet his new owner. Jim Benoit and McKnight flew to Florida and spent three days working with Edison and his trainer.

"I can get the dog doing great for me, but then I've got to teach Jim how to handle him," said Mathys, who added he did not charge for his work with Edison. Working with Jim Benoit gave the trainer - who had spent most of his 12-year career domesticating house dogs - a new sense of purpose.

"It gets really old day in and day out telling somebody how to keep their dog from jumping on the couch or peeing in their house," he said. "Working with veterans is a whole different breed of people. I feel like I'm making a difference now."

Jim Benoit flew back to Walter Reed, where his physical therapists incorporated Edison into his rehabilitation. He began pool therapy but would always forget to remove his sunglasses before getting into the water. No problem. He simply called Edison, who would take the glasses in his mouth and place them on a nearby towel. Trouble getting the wheelchair up a ramp? Edison would assist.

"Instead of saying 'Pam, I dropped this,' he says, 'Edison,' " his wife said.

But Edison's physical assistance pales in comparison with how he lifts her husband's spirits, Pam said.

"On top of everything Edison does for him, just the companionship he gives to Jim is like none other. It gives him something to get up for."

Benoit bought his dog a wardrobe of colorful bandannas, matching collars and leashes and little boots to protect his feet from salt spread during the winter. There's a never-ending supply of Tbonz steak-shaped doggie treats and endless hours spent curled up together on the couch.

Benoit has always been quiet, his mother said, but the dog forced him to engage with people.

"The dog drew so much attention, Jim had no choice but to start talking to people. But it makes the conversation easier. You don't have to talk about what happened to you. They all want to know about the dog."

As Benoit rolls through his day, people stop him and ask about Edison. Some stroke the dog, ignoring his green vest bearing the words, "Please don't pet me, I'm working." They ask the dog's name, where he comes from, what he can do. They tell the veteran about their own dogs and thank him for his service. He responds, briefly and quietly.

"People tend to respect him more when he has the dog," said Solomon Montgomery, a physical therapy assistant who worked with Benoit.

After watching Benoit's life change because of Edison, McKnight is now working with Mathys to train a dog for an injured North Carolina soldier.

"I think every soldier who needs it, we should look at ways to provide them with the service," he said.

On a recent Wednesday, Benoit sat in his wheelchair at the door of his hotel room at Walter Reed, ready to leave for a morning appointment with his plastic surgeon.

He motioned to Edison to pick up his cap. The dog went for his leash instead. After two more tries, he finally grasped the beige baseball cap in his mouth.

"Leash," Benoit then said.

Edison picked up a brown leather leash off the floor with his mouth and handed it to Benoit, who rewarded him with a Tbonz treat. Benoit leaned over the dog and snapped the buckles on his green vest in place. He rolled out of the hotel room, down the hallway, Edison keeping pace perfectly at his side.

After her husband's appointment, Pam ran into a hospital office to make an inquiry. Jim sat in the lobby. A middle-aged man dressed in a green army uniform approached.

"What does he do for you?" the man asked.

"Everything," Jim replied.

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Larry Scott  --