Spinal Cord Center Marks 25th Year

Born from the rubble of the 1971 Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake, the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center celebrated its silver anniversary Tuesday, a milestone in the care of disabled veterans in the San Fernando Valley.

“It’s very exciting, a little overwhelming,” confessed Dr. Glenna Tolbert, director of the SCI unit since last fall.

Opened at San Fernando’s veterans hospital in 1950 to treat ex-soldiers who had been wounded in World War II, the unit was quickly moved to Sepulveda (later renamed North Hills) on Feb. 10, 1971, after a powerful earthquake demolished the San Fernando facility.

Since then, the outpatient clinic has served more than 150 disabled veterans from cities as far away as Bakersfield.

“Without this clinic. a lot of these individuals could not possibly live in the community,” observed Joe Fox, president of the California Paralyzed Veterans Assn., who presented a plaque to the clinic’s staff during a brief ceremony to mark the unit’s 25th anniversary.

Left a paraplegic by a gunshot wound in Vietnam 27 years ago, Fox noted that the medical and personal care offered by clinics like Sepulveda’s has resulted in a dramatic rise in the life expectancy for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

“We had a purpose in life and we fought for that purpose and we continue to fight for quality of life,” he told the crowd.

After more than 20 years in the medical center’s Building 10, the unit moved to its present quarters in the remodeled Building 4 on Aug. 1, 1994.

Pat Grissom, a clinic visitor from the beginning, said that although budget cuts remain a constant threat, the staff and patients of Sepulveda’s unit have worked tirelessly for a quarter of a century to provide quality care to wheelchair-bound veterans.

“We were determined to make it work and it did work,” he said.

“It’s been working ever since.”