There is a building in Richmond, Virginia, full of unsung heroes. Day after day, patients and their loved ones face some of the most traumatic events of their lives, while caregivers and staff work around the clock to provide the best healing experience they can.
This is the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Never before has the VA allowed a journalist and author such access to this beacon of hope for injured service members and veterans. The results are inspiring, with many uplifting success stories as well as painful times that can be heartbreaking.
From young MPs facing multiple traumatic injuries, to families making difficult decisions, to the bright and energetic physicians of this model VA hospital, readers can expect a sensitive look at many of the individuals of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in this candid and revealing piece.
In the first book of its kind, author Joseph Macenka puts a human face on the many heroes behind the walls of this successful VA hospital, one of only five in the country to contain its own Polytrauma Center-a center that is considered a world-class model of rehabilitation and healing for service members facing the gravest of injuries.
About the Author: Joseph Macenka is an award-winning journalist and author living in Richmond, Virginia.
He has more than thirty-five years of experience in the news business, including sixteen years working with the Associated Press. Throughout his career, he has covered a wide variety of topics-from the world's largest death-row prison escape, to the Virginia Tech shooting, to the Olympics and the NFL.
In 2009, Macenka's three-part series about the shooting death of a promising young Virginia Commonwealth University student got him nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing.
Inspired by the unsung heroes of the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, he wrote Hope Emerges, a revealing look at the hospital's Polytrauma Center that profiles the patients, families, staff members, and physicians who work around the clock to provide world-class rehabilitation and healing.
