BRUCE HUFF / Union-Tribune
The nonprofit Fisher House will today open its second residence for families of troops receiving treatment at the San Diego Naval Medical Center, which has seen an increase in patients from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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BALBOA PARK
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The nonprofit Fisher House will today open its second residence for families of troops receiving treatment at the San Diego Naval Medical Center, which has seen an increase in patients from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Located next to the first Fisher House on the hospital's campus in Balboa Park, the new building can accommodate 12 families. The 8,000-square-foot home cost about $4 million to construct and furnish.
It was designed with an emphasis on comforting stressed parents and spouses of injured service members. There are no wartime photos, just spacious rooms, oversized halls and granite counter tops.
“This does not look like a bachelor-enlisted house,” Tim Scully, the Fisher House director in San Diego, said yesterday during a preview tour for the media.
“We try to give families the feeling of home,” said David Coker, president of the Fisher House Foundation.
Fisher House officials give priority to families of combat-wounded troops or seriously ill patients. They also pay special attention to those living at least 50 miles away from the naval medical center, such as on or around Camp Pendleton.
Families usually live in a Fisher House for a month, although longer stays can be arranged. They receive free room and board, and can take advantage of computer access, a recreation room and gardens meant to instill a sense of tranquillity.
Leaders of Fisher House and the medical center decided to build the second residence because the first one could not keep up with demand. On average between 1992 and 2005, the first Fisher House reached capacity more than 92 percent of the time, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
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New Fisher house
What: Second residence for families of service members undergoing treatment at the San Diego Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park.
When: Opens today.
Where: On the hospital campus, adjacent to the first Fisher House.
Size: The 8,000-square-foot building provides living space for up to 12 families.
Cost: About $4 million.
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Navy and Fisher House officials routinely work with community groups to find alternate housing for people on the waiting list.
Their campaign to build another home next to the existing one largely dovetailed with the medical center's decision to accept patients scarred by war.
In 2003, the hospital started treating nonamputee troops medevaced from Iraq. Three years later, it established a comprehensive program to care for all types of combat-wounded military personnel.
“We looked at the numbers and determined there was going to be a continued need,” Scully said. “(This medical center) is one of the busiest hospitals in the world, and that is not going to change anytime soon.”
Major funding for the second Fisher House came from Tri-West Health Care Alliance, the prime health care provider for troops and their families, and the T. Boone Pickens Foundation. The groundbreaking ceremony took place June 15, 2007.
Fisher House officials plan to build more of their residences in Dallas; western Los Angeles; Seattle; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Camp Pendleton. The commanders at Camp Pendleton haven't asked for a Fisher House, but that's expected to change soon, said James Weiskopf, a Fisher House spokesman.
“I've been told that Camp Pendleton has been the hardest hit of any base in the United States” in terms of combat casualties, he said. “There is a significant number of wounded and injured in the greater San Diego County area.”
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com
