The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Improve the Health and Wellness of Persons with Disabilities

Good afternoon.

Thank you for that introduction. It's a pleasure to be here today.

As you heard, I live on Maui, so it just happened to be perfect timing that brought me to the mainland at the same time that my friend Rich is launching this Call to Action.

I'm a scout leader for Kula Troop 14, and my son and I are joining 25,000 other scouts and scout leaders at the 2005 National Boy Scout Jamboree, just down the road from here.

I would have worn my Boy Scout uniform, but that would have been a lot of uniforms up here on stage.

It's been 30 years since I was in uniform. I served in Vietnam as an Army Special Forces medic. That experience led me to choose a career in surgery.

A lot has changed since 1975 when I left active duty.

• I've been to college and medical school, completed medical and surgical training - including a trauma surgery internship over 20 years ago under the direction a young chief resident named Rich Carmona.
• I've been a professor and a member of hundreds of surgical teams.
• I now run my own private practice. As the boss, I now have the ability to set my own schedule. As you heard, I've traveled to Afghanistan and Laos on medical missions.
• I also volunteer with community groups at home on Maui.
• Best of all, I've married and am raising twin children with my wonderful wife Nina.

And I've done all this from a wheelchair.

I was paralyzed in 1977 when I was hit by a drunk driver.

My injuries included a broken back, which led to my spinal cord injury. I also fractured both my arms and legs in several places.

I spent eight months in the hospital recovering from those injuries.

During those eight months, a lot of people asked me what I planned to do next.

I always said that I was going back to college and then on to medical school, just as I had planned to do before I was paralyzed

I knew that you don't have to move your feet to be a surgeon.

Not everyone shared that opinion.

After eight months in the hospital, and especially since I was so interested in my own recovery, I became almost part of the staff.

Other patients came and went, but I was there - still doing rehab; still talking with the therapists, nurses, and other team members.

So one night I happened to be looking through my own medical chart while I was hanging out at the nurses' station.

There were notes from the social worker that said, "Patient is in denial of the severity of his injuries. He believes that he can still become a surgeon."

I didn't resent what the social worker wrote. And I still don't.

She was trying to be realistic, at a time when people with disabilities were supposed to think first about their disability and second about their abilities.

Things have changed a lot since then, but I'm still the only surgeon in the United States to do all my medical and surgical training from a wheelchair.

I'm happy to report that today there's a young woman at Stanford Medical School who is in a wheelchair and is training to be a surgeon.

She has my full support, and I hope that she sees by looking at me that she can make it through her training and become the surgeon she wants to be.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, I knew that I would have to keep up with the same competitive requirements that surgical training programs had for every other student.

There was no A-D-A, and few if any surgical training programs even considered what to do if a student had a disability.

So I worked with a wheelchair company to design and build a wheelchair that would allow me to stand up in the operating room.

At the time, nothing like that existed, and, believe me, there were more than a few strange glances when nurses and doctors saw me operating from a wheelchair.

But with the right equipment and training, I was able to move around the operating room without contaminating the space, and do everything that other surgeons did on two legs.

I hope this Surgeon General's Call to Action will open even more people's eyes to the reality that people like me have unlimited potential.

If you are raising a child with a disability, if you're a teacher or a scout leader - if you have any contact with children, remember:

• A person with a disability should have unlimited goals. People's potential is limited only by their imagination. If there was a kid who wanted to fly planes, drive race cars, be an astronaut or an oceanographer, I would say go for it. And like a lot of disabled Americans, I'm an athlete. I lift weights, I ski, I scuba drive. These activities have helped my rehabilitation and keep me in good health.

I'm really glad that the goals of this Call to Action speak to all sectors of American life, and I know that I have benefited from the fact that throughout my education, people were willing to look beyond my wheelchair.

But there is only so much that others can do for us. The most important person to my recovery was always me.

To every person with a disability I would say we need to be aware of two things:

• One, our potential as human beings, especially in a nation like ours that provides so many opportunities.
• And two, our responsibility to society. I always remind the scouts and our own two children of the fact that it's only by giving back that we build something better. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

There is more that I could say about the Call to Action and what I think it will mean to our nation, but I will stop there.

And now, I have the honor and privilege of introducing my friend and mentor, Rich Carmona. You know him as Surgeon General Carmona.

When a Surgeon General issues a Call to Action on something, it makes a difference. This Call to Action will be a catalyst for a lot of good.

The reality is that my friend Rich has been making a difference for as long as I've known him, and everyone who is lucky enough to work with him and be his friend knows that this man always puts other people first.

Born and raised in New York City, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967.

He joined the Army's Special Forces and became a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran.

He worked his way through college and medical school, excelling at just about every job in the health care profession - including paramedic, registered nurse, and physician's assistant.

He graduated from the University of California Medical School in three years instead of the usual four, and was awarded the prestigious gold headed cane as the top graduate.

Prior to being named Surgeon General, Dr. Carmona was the chairman of the State of Arizona Southern Regional Emergency Medical System, a professor at the University of Arizona, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department surgeon and deputy sheriff.

Rich, thank you for allowing me to join you today, and for always being a great friend.

Ladies and gentleman, Surgeon General Richard Carmona...

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Last revised: January 10, 2007