OMAHA, NE. – FOX 42 KPTM – A new hospital dedicated to helping veterans is setting down roots in Omaha. The Dunham House will work exclusively with veterans who have been injured in combat.
Within the next year Wounded Warrior Family Support (WWFS) hopes to break ground, transforming a plot of land in rural Douglas County into a world class hospital to treat veterans that suffer from spinal cord and brain injuries sustained in combat.
Wounded Warriors Family Support President, and retired USMC Colonel John Folsom got the idea to create the care facility after meeting a young soldier at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. The soldier had suffered a brain injury when an improvised explosive device (IED) was set off near his head in Iraq.
“The theme to recognize that service and sacrifice of one’s life was from John 15:13 ‘ Greater man hath no love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Folsom said.
That scripture is guiding Folsom and his team to raise funds to create Dunham House, care facility focused on helping veterans who could otherwise not live independently on their own, due to their extreme injuries.
The hospital is named after Corporal Jason Dunham, a Marine that used his body to shield his fellow Marines from a grenade in Husaybah, Iraq in 2004. Dunham was hospitalized for 8 days before passing away at the age of 22.
The facility is designed to provide care to veterans with severe brain and spinal cord injuries sustained during combat.
“We bring in combat wounded veterans from all over the United States to come live here as long as they want,” Folsom said.
The 24 bed, 16,000 sq foot facility, will cost approximately $10 million to finish. Folsom says the hospital will provide care beyond what is offered at a veterans home.
“This facility is specifically designed for those combat wounded Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors whose parents can no longer take care of them, they have no family members who can take care of them,”Folsom said.
Folsom said the goal is to give veterans a place to age with the support they need.
“Many cases there is no rehabilitation, there is no getting back to a normal life. They will never be back to a normal life,” Folsom said. “Mild TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury] can grow into a more moderate to severe TBI as one ages.”
The facility will be built on an 80 acre plot near the intersection of Rainwood Road and 120th street.Wounded Warrior Family Support is waiting on approval from the Omaha City Council and Omaha Planning Board to rezone the property into a residential plot to allow them to begin construction.
Organizers say they hope to have the Dunham open in time for Christmas of 2020. Folsom said the WWFS has raised approximately a fourth of the funds they need to build the Dunham House.