WINDOW

the
First step
‘It’s changing their
attitude from
hopelessness to
“I can do it.”’
Story by Fiona Cohen
When the wounded soldier first met
physical therapist Kerrie Golden (’89),
he had already struggled two years
with injuries from one terrible day in Iraq.
Sgt. Maj. Robert Haemmerle had been unable
to move his shoulder since October 2006 in Ramadi,
a violence-wracked town in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle.
A blast from an improvised explosive device
had knocked Haemmerle off a 10-foot wall, and
he banged his shoulder and knee. Later that day a
rocket propelled grenade hit the building he was in;
he got a big blow to the head, resulting in lingering
problems with concentration.
Doctors initially didn’t find any permanent
problems, so Haemmerle remained in Iraq and
didn’t have his injuries treated. There were others
who needed more help than he did, he says. But he
could no longer raise his arms to pull his body armor
over his head – he had to wriggle into it, left
arm first, his head buffeted by the ceramic plates.
“It was not fun,” he says.
By the time Haemmerle went on to Afghanistan,
a doctor noticed his joint problems and sent
him to Bethesda, Md., for surgery at the National
Naval Medical Center. The surgeon requested that
Haemmerle’s physical therapist be chief of the department:
Lt. Col. Kerrie Golden.
By then, Haemmerle worried it wouldn’t be possible
to deploy back to Afghanistan. Two years of
neglect had warped his wounded muscles.
But while rising through the ranks to become
head of the country’s largest hospital physical therapy
department, Golden had built a career of getting
wounded soldiers to accomplish their own goals,
whether it’s returning to battle, playing with their
children or completing a 10k race with a hand-cycle.
“It’s changing their attitude from hopelessness
to ‘I can do it,’” says Golden, who continues to see
patients in addition to her administrative duties.
Physical therapy has been part of Golden’s life
plan since she enrolled at Western. A 1985 graduate
of Mount Baker High School, she enrolled in
WWU’s pre-physical therapy program, with a graduate
degree in mind.
She found her courses at Western to be rigorous
and serious-minded, both in the sciences and
physical education. “I was really surprised at how
challenging it was,” she says.
In Professor Kathy Knutzen, she had an adviser
she could trust.
Continued on page 27.
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WINDOW • Fall 2010 • Western Washington University
Photo by Aaron Barna
www.wwu.edu/window
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