Some San Antonio therapists are using a special kind of soft tissue massage to help heal injured troops. It’s a combination of skin care and massage that’s making a difference for wounded warriors.
The San Antonio Massage & Spa looks and sounds like your typical spa, but the patient on the table wasn’t your typical client. Captain Ryan Voltin is a Marine helicopter pilot who was burned over 25% of his body in 2007. His arms, head and face have required surgery and skin grafts.
“When there are extensive burns all over the body, as with our warriors, the scar tissue becomes a jumbled matrix that contracts and prevents motion and movement,” explained Jann Henry, licensed massage therapist.
Henry’s healing hands are helping Voltin and others with pain and mobility. She and her associates have worked on 65 injured Marines, soldiers and airmen over the past three years. Brooke Army Medical Center identifies patients who might benefit from this unique, labor-intensive approach to healing.
“This is going to help me in the long run and it’s helping me get more and more active as I continue along my recovery,” Voltin said.
Hydrating creams help strengthen the skin and promote healing, while targeted soft tissue massage breaks up scar tissue and helps the body parts work more like they’re supposed to.
“I would have been the first to say this is kind of out there,” Votin recalled. “But I can’t ignore the benefits and the therapies that have worked. And this is one of them.”
“We’ve got to give them everything we can possibly give them to get their lives back together and get them on the road to healing and wellness,” Henry added.
This has become a passion of Henry’s, and she’s participating in clinical research to study the results of deep tissue massage on burn victims.
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