Incorporating the prosthetic: Traumatic, limb-loss, rehabilitation and refigured military bodies

Abstract

In this article, I look at the role that context of injury plays in the rehabilitation of military patients who sustained a limb amputation as a result of blast injury trauma in Afghanistan and Iraq. This article contrasts the technologically driven model of rehabilitation produced by the US Armed Forces Amputee Patient Care Program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a person centered approach building on work in medical anthropology. In this article, two case studies are contrasted illustrating the reasons behind the rejection of an upper extremity prosthetic device in one example and the acceptance of one in another. I argue that even in light of the incredible advances in medical technique and prosthetic technology, a body and functionality focussed rehabilitation must also pay attention to the subjective experiences of individual patients in terms of their present and their past.

Keywords:

• Traumatic injury
• limb loss
• war
• social context

Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

1. This and all names mentioned in this article are pseudonyms developed in accordance with the ethical review committee overseeing this project.

2. See Ref. 9 for her discussion of medical imaginaries and bioscientific embraces.