HEALING THAT'S AHEAD OF THE TIMES

BY ROBERT L. FISCHER AND GRADY T. BIRDSONG

Editors Note: The Miracle Workers of South Boulder Road: Healing the Signature Wounds of War tells a dramatic story of how a severely disabled young stroke victim healed himself using an element that only nature can provide: oxygen. It also describes how he and three other "Miracle Workers" began to help others. He learned how to render this important treatment therapy to veterans returning home from the Middle East with traumatic brain injuries and related post-traumatic stress.

These Miracle Workers are healing lives with one of America’s most successful integrated hyperbaric oxygen treatment and PTSD counseling programs. The following is the sixth chapter in a series of articles about this process.3

CHAPTER 6 SERGEANT MAJOR PEPE A. RAMIREZ, USMC (RET) IN HIS OWN WORDS

How did a retired Sergeant Major of Marines come to this exceptional team of miracle workers? What could he offer to wounded veterans with TBIs and PTSD? And how did the Rocky Mountain Hyperbaric Institute become the first integrated TBI-PTSD treatment program in the nation when VA hospitals and treatment centers still separate the two conditions?

After mustering out of the Marine Corps, Pepe Ramirez returned to Denver, Colorado, and embarked upon a field of study that would alter his future life. Because he still loved the men he’d led in the past, Pepe immediately enrolled in the University of Denver and completed a master’s degree in social work. This course contained both clinical psychology and cognitive therapy. He chose this field of study due to his past experiences as a leader in the Marine Corps. In addition, he felt strongly that he could help other veterans with their transi

After mustering out of the Marine Corps, Pepe Ramirez returned to Denver, Colorado, and embarked upon a field of study that would alter his future life. Because he still loved the men he’d led in the past, Pepe immediately enrolled in the University of Denver and completed a master’s degree in social work. This course contained both clinical psychology and cognitive therapy. He chose this field of study due to his past experiences as a leader in the Marine Corps. In addition, he felt strongly that he could help other veterans with their transi

tions to the civilian world.

Recently, an anonymous combat veteran patient told it so well: "This Sergeant Major has been there. He has experienced three combat tours in Iraq. When he talks to you, the connection is immediate. He knows exactly how each of us feels and why. He does not type away on a computer and barely notices you as most counselors do. There is real bonding and immediate trust in him that he can help us..."

Pepe Ramirez admirably achieved the highest and most respected enlisted rank in the United States Marine Corps, yet that is not all that can be said about him. The real measure of Ramirez is how he managed to succeed when he was faced with more obstacles than most people dream about in a lifetime.

After being born in the Philippines, his family moved to the south side of Chicago, Illinois, when he was nine years old. Every street had its own gang: Italian, Irish, African American, Hispanic, etc. Pepe quickly learned to fight to survive. Referred to as the