Blog Posts tagged with "Tallinn"

*This is the final blog for this series; the first can be seen here and the second here.*

The final day of the Wounded Warrior team’s trip in the Baltics began with a visit to Magdaleena East Central Tallinn Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Estonia and the best hospital in Tallinn for rehabilitation.

The hospital tour -- provided by Dr. Heidi Gill, the head of the rehabilitation department -- highlighting their various rehabilitation areas and capabilities, was quite interesting because of the unique therapies available to patients. Certain therapies that are considered homeopathic in the U.S. are commonplace in the Baltic and Scandanavian countries; they use "mud" therapy, hydro-therapy and also extreme cold therapy which has shown to be effective with treating rheumatic disorders and severe depression. The temperatures in the severe cold therapy are well below -100 Celsius!

After the tour we were pleasantly surprised to see that the lecture facilities were the best out of all the previous places visited and we settled in for the day’s discussions. The group of Estonians who joined us came from quite diverse areas: most were from the Estonian Military Medical organization, others were local doctors, psychologists, nurses and social workers. The focus was on medical lectures followed by our entire team going on stage for an open panel question and answer session.

Dr. James Ecklund, former head of Neuroscience at Walter Reed and world-renowned neurosurgeon and expert on blast related brain injuries is interviewed.

Dr. Ecklund presented his lecture on blast induced brain injuries and was followed by Dr. Polo and his lecture that focused on traumatic brain injuries. Both lectures were specifically tailored to the audience and group discussion from the audience was light during the lectures. An important part of security cooperation is understanding the culture of the countries you are in; in Estonia people are less likely to ask question in large group settings. However, during the breaks or after presentations there will typically be very in depth discussions. Just as a predicted, during the breaks and after the presentation the team was vigorously engaged with the audience on a variety of topics. Although our schedule was tight we were still able to do some effective networking and generate ideas for future areas of cooperation.

After a quick stop for lunch the team began the 1.5 hour drive to Haapsalu, a beautiful city close to the Baltic Sea with a large castle partly restored and partly still in ruins. Haapsalu is also home to the Haapsalu Neurological Rehab center, the best neurological rehab center in the country. It also boasts a beautiful promenade and gorgeous views from most of the windows which adds to the restorative effects of the center. The view in winter is also beautiful but in more of an austere kind of way. The lake in front of the center is frozen and there were actually ice roads with cars driving over them while we watched from the large bay windows.

Dr. Kadri Englas, the head of their rehab department, and Priit Eelmae, the hospital director, met us at the entrance and talked a little bit out our team and the overall mission. The leadership at this center is outstanding and they are always looking for new ways to partner with the U.S.

Here I'm discussing a EUCOM Humanitarian Assistance project for an amputee care center/prosthesis lab that will be a joint project with the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonian Defense Forces and Ministry of Defense.

Priit told us about the hospital’s history and current capabilities. He stressed the work they have done with wounded Estonian Soldiers in their state of the art gait lab which is able to digitally capture how a person walks; they use this information to tailor rehab programs. This is particularly useful with amputees learning to walk again with their new prosthesis.

Priit and Dr. Englas then took us on a short tour of the center and highlighted their occupational therapy and gait lab capabilities.We finished the tour in the conference room and met with the rest of the medical staff which included physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers and nurses. Dr. Ecklund gave a custom tailored brief that focused on highlighting the injuries and resulting symptoms they might see with blast related head injuries. Dr. Polo followed with his presentation on the medical symptoms and treatment recommendations for mild to severe TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pam and David then discussed with the group what their specialties were and also ideas for improving assistance to families and veterans based on their understanding of the center's capabilities and focus. A healthy question and answer session and discussions for future cooperation ensued for about 45 minutes. We said our goodbyes and began the drive back to Tallinn.

It was a nice end to a long and productive day and week.

Major Christopher E. Mackin
Bilateral Affairs Officer/Deputy Chief
US Office of Defense Cooperation, Estonia