Zampieri Featured
in AAPA News
BVA Director of Government Relations Tom Zampieri was featured in the November 30, 2005 AAPA News, a publication of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants.
Sharing the article’s spotlight with Tom was, ironically, Physician Assistant Joseph Soparas, the only PA in the country who works directly with inpatients at a VA BRC. Soparas is responsible for assuring that his patients, usually 15 at any one time, are all healthy enough to participate in training sessions at the Augusta, Georgia center.
The write-up, composed by Hillel Kuttler, highlights Tom’s personal visits to recently blinded and otherwise wounded veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center some 15 miles from BVA National Headquarters. The piece also illustrates how Tom applies the talents he developed in his former life as a military and civilian medic, and then as a VA Physician’s Assistant, to his work on Capitol Hill as he represents the interests of blinded veterans and their families.
“The new opportunity at BVA may be an extension of the part of me wanting to still help people,” he is quoted as saying.
The article also addresses Tom’s own experiences in rehabilitation and adjusting to the onset of legal blindness as a result of a degenerative retinal disease. It reveals his desire to extend encouragement and empathy to veterans who have lost their sight as a result of combat injuries or conditions such as macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, or diabetic retinopathy. |
