Home away from home for families of wounded

By Keith Oppenheim
CNN

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Dan Barnes, a double amputee, pulls himself up out of his chair.

Barnes survived a rocket-propelled grenade attack while he was on patrol west of Baghdad. He is recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, Gretchen, by his side.

"We're 800 miles from home," Gretchen Barnes said, referring to southern Missouri. "So it's not a familiar place."

But there is a place near the hospital that helps make things more familiar for her. She is staying at Fisher House, a nonprofit program that provides accommodations for the families of wounded or ill servicemen and women. (Watch how the Fisher House helps soldiers and their families -- 1:43 )

The facility, which is on the grounds of the military hospital where her husband is being treated, is one of 34 U.S.-based Fisher Houses; there is also one in Germany. The program helps out about 8,500 families annually, according to its Web site.

And the program estimates it has offered more than 2 million days of lodging for about 100,000 families since it was established in 1990.

In the past, families paid about $10 per day to stay at a Fisher House facility. But thanks to an influx of donations, families now stay for free.

The San Antonio Fisher House looks like a community -- a home rather than a hotel. There's a common living room, dining area, a playground in the backyard and rooms for relatives to escape the stresses of the hospital.

"Each person has a half a shelf in the fridge," Gretchen Barnes said, showing off the kitchen.

She's close to her husband -- she can walk from Fisher House to the medical center -- but the facility provides a break from the hospital. "This makes me feel less stressed about starting our new life," she said.

The proximity to loved ones does more than ease minds, according to hospital staff. Wounded soldiers rehabilitate faster if their families are nearby, according to many at the Brooke Army Medical Center.

"We've found that support really does aid in the positive power of healing," said Col. John Shero of the Medical Service Corps.

And the need for healing is great, and it is rising, he said. More than 20,000 American troops have been wounded since the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, according to the U.S military.

Shero said the war regularly sends home soldiers who have suffered burns. Others return without limbs.

In one hospital room, young men who returned from battle with just one leg try out artificial limbs. They gingerly learn to walk. Some, such as Barnes, are missing both legs. Others are missing an arm.

For many of these patients, healing and readjusting will take time. Barnes expects to be an outpatient at the medical center for about a year. He said he hopes to move into Fisher House with his wife within a week and prepare for the long process of learning to walk with artificial legs.

"Once I get my legs, I'll be able to do -- probably everything and then some," he said.

His wife fights back tears when she talks about him. "I feel proud that his attitude and his effort are where they need to be and that's what's going to get him out of here," she said.

But until he does get out, the couple will always have a place to stay.

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