Alumni Profile: Keith Stuessi, MD '92

Very few times in life do you get an opportunity to make a tremendous difference in the lives of others by participating in something new and promising.

 

That is exactly what Commander Keith Stuessi, MD '92, is doing at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, a U.S. Marine Corps base located in remote Helmand province.

 

As the officer in charge of the military's first Concussion Restoration Care Center there, Stuessi is making sure that patients with mild traumatic brain injuries are finally getting the attention they need.

 

Concussions affect more than one brain system, explains Stuessi, so a multidisciplinary approach is needed to assess, treat and rehabilitate patients who present with them. And that's exactly what the new concussion center provides. The staff of 13 includes a family medicine physician, a sports medicine physician, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist and a team of mental health professionals.

 

"In my 18-year military career, this is the most exciting experience I've ever had," says Stuessi of his work running the new facility. He volunteered to be deployed last August as part of a special team from Camp Pendleton, California, where he heads two sports medicine and rehabilitation therapy clinics.

 

And even though he is thousands of miles away from his home state of Wisconsin, he still has strong ties to the Badger state. As often as possible, he enthusiastically watches Badger sports from afar, proudly displaying his allegiance to Bucky.

 

Concussions Common in Combat

 

Concussions are the number-one battle injury, says Stuessi, with most of them stemming from improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.

 

"If first concussions are left diagnosed and untreated, patients may develop permanent brain injury if they suffer a second concussion and the brain hasn't healed from the first," he says.

 

In a war zone, it is not unusual for service members to receive more than one concussion.

 

But combat troops may dismiss the nausea, headaches, slow reaction time, memory loss and other issues that can follow head injuries, says Stuessi.

 

In 2009, the Marines set up a combat stress tent at Camp Leatherneck, which offered psychiatric and psychological counseling. About half the patients who used it sought help for combat stress, but the other half came mostly because of concussion symptoms.

 

A plan took shape to develop a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation center for war-inflicted concussions. The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery helped back the 2,000-square-foot facility at Camp Leatherneck, which is home to approximately 20,000 Marines. The concussion center opened on August 30, 2010.

 

"Our services include neurological testing, treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, and physical and occupational therapy," Stuessi says. "Before we opened, patients had nowhere to go to get this kind of comprehensive rehabilitative care."

 

For the 44-year-old Stuessi, the experience has been life altering.

 

"I had never deployed before," Stuessi explains, "so seeing people come off the battlefield in terrible condition and then experiencing their joy after they are rehabilitated and able to return to their unit is very rewarding."

 

When the center first opened last August, between seven and 10 patients were seen daily, but the number now averages between 28 and 30. About 50 percent of the patients come from urgent care while others arrive from aid stations in the field.

 

After a recent military policy went into effect, even more patients are being seen for concussions than in the past. Troops who come within 50 meters of an IED blast are required to leave the battlefield for a minimum of 24 hours and be evaluated for a concussion.

 

 

'Keeping Marines in the Fight'

 

 

Stuessi grew up in Wales, Wisconsin, about 20 miles west of Waukesha, and later moved to Jefferson.

 

As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, he majored in biomedical engineering. In his senior year, he wrote a letter to the military, inquiring about the Health Professions Scholarship Program. The letter led to a four-year medical school scholarship and a monthly stipend of $710.

 

"I really wanted to go to medical school at UW-Madison so I jumped at the opportunity," he says.

 

He persuaded Linda Carpenter, a fellow Northwestern classmate who became his wife, to come with him to Madison. She graduated from UW Law School in 1991. The couple have two children, Maya, age twelve, and Brock, age fourteen.

 

Between 1993 and 1995, Stuessi was a general medical officer for the Marines and took care of about 1,200 patients. His next stop was Naval Hospital Bremerton in Washington, where he stayed until 1997. Another move took him to Iceland for three years, and in 2001 he completed a fellowship in primary care sports medicine.

 

As he immersed himself in sports medicine at the Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Stuessi developed two innovative, centrally located, "one-stop shopping" Sports Medicine and Reconditioning Treatment (SMART) centers.

 

SMART helps health care professionals trained in sports medicine assess, treat and rehabilitate injured service members so they can return to work as quickly as possible.

 

Between 2005 and 2006, Stuessi ran a SMART center at Camp Pendleton, where he enjoyed teaching others.

 

By the time he deployed to Afghanistan, Stuessi had built up an arsenal of sports medicine skills to draw from. And he brought added alternative medicine skills - the Navy had also trained him to do acupuncture for issues such as headaches and poor sleeping patterns.

 

"The concussion restoration care center is fully equipped, even though we don't have an MRI," Stuessi says.

 

Outcomes at the center are as good as any you'll see at hospitals where professional athletes are treated.

 

"We're proud of the fact that we've returned more than 275 Marines to full duty, symptom-free, since the center opened," says Stuessi. "About 40 of them would have returned to the U.S. if they hadn't received our help. We're keeping Marines in the fight."

 

When exactly is the brain ready to go back to the battlefield? The Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, or ANAM, helps Stuessi and his colleagues decide. Before all soldiers deploy overseas, they go through this 20-minute computerized test that assesses things like reaction time, learning speed and short-term memory. It also gauges mood, fatigue and history of head injury.

 

"ANAM gives us a baseline so we can determine how ready Marines are to return to their unit," says Stuessi. "When we can send them back, our reward is to see them happy and smiling."

 

Stuessi has enjoyed his latest professional challenge.

 

"When our team came out here, we worked hard to prove our existence," Stuessi says. "Now that we've been here several months, I can say the success we've had is overwhelming. We are doing the best possible job for service members and we're doing it in an austere environment."

 

In March, Stuessi will return home to Camp Pendleton and be promoted to captain.

 

"It's an understatement to say I will miss working here," he says. "It has been an extremely positive experience."

Date Published: 03/24/2011