New UCLA Rehabilitation Center Opens
The new Rehabilitation Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, opened in September of this year. The UCLA Prosthetics Orthotics Program is housed in the new building, as shown in the following photographs and description.
Members of the first class to be given in the new UCLA Rehabilitation Center laboratories at work in the Prosthetic-Orthotic Laboratory. (Fig. 1). Designed to enable students to work on both braces and artificial limbs, the layout and equipment have been carefully planned to provide the most efficient, clean, and safe environment possible. Some interesting features are:
- Laboratory benches. Each student has a six-foot Formica-topped bench. They are mounted in pairs, with a powerful dust-collector to serve both. Hand tools are mounted on a revolving tool-board fastened to a sliding rail under the center of the bench. High and low vacuum supply for plastic laminating is provided through the panel on the lower left side of the bench. A very accurate regulator is provided for each system so the vacuum can be controlled. A Dunmore hand grinder is provided at the lower right portion of each bench, over the dust evacuator funnel. A machinist bench vise with adaptors for gripping sockets is mounted on one corner of each bench, and a "Milmo" vertical fabricating jig at one end. On the left is the hopper for plaster shavings hinged to the end of the bench so it can be folded out of the way when not in use. Shavings are collected in a disposable plastic bag.
- Fume hoods. A large fume hood is mounted over one end of each pair of benches to evacuate the toxic fumes from plastic laminating and foaming operations. The entire building is air-conditioned.
- Dust collection system. Barely visible as grey boxes mounted on the wall on the upper right hand part of the photograph are the dust collectors for the machines mounted along the wall. There are three separate units, one for each group of three machines. Dust is kept to an absolute minimum by these machines and the fume hoods.
The Examining Room is a busy area when the students are measuring their patients and taking down prosthetic information. Mr. Alvin L. Muilenburg, of Houston, Texas, who serves as a part-time teacher at UCLA, is seen checking the measurements made by a student. (Fig. 2 ). The Examining Room is equipped with twelve examining tables that may be folded into the wall so the room may be cleared for other uses. Sliding curtains may be pulled around each table, forming a small examining room so patients may be worked with in private.
After the lecture-demonstration on the use of the VAPC casting machine, the students work in pairs making casts of their patients. (Fig. 3 ). The amputees remain in their Examining Room until time to be cast, and are returned to that room as soon as the casting is completed. Amputees are never allowed to enter any of the other laboratories for reasons of safety.
Students in the first class in Above Knee Prosthetics observe a lecture-demonstration on taking a cast of an above knee stump by Mr. John J. Bray (kneeling at right, back to camera). (Fig. 4 ).
Fig. 5
The first class to complete a course in prosthetics at the new U.C.L.A. Rehabilitation Center— Course X-463, Above Knee Prosthetics, September 20-October 15, 1965. Front row (left to right): Maurice LeBlanc, Staff Specialist, Prosthetics-Orthotics Program, UCLA Rehabilitation Center; Frederick J. Ball, Adept Prosthetics, Downey, Calif.; Jean Fleetwood, Intermountain Limb & Brace, Salt Lake City, Utah; John J. Lessar, Schindler's Artificial Limb & Truss, Spokane, Wash.; Stanley A. Norell, Navy Prosthetic Research Lab., U.S. Naval Hospital, Oakland, Calif. Back row (left to right): John J. Bray, Associate Research Prosthetisr-Orthotist, Prosthetics-Orthotics Program, U.C.L.A. Rehabilitation Center; Charles M. Scott, Assistant Research Prosthetisr-Orthotist, Prosthetics-Orthotics Program, U.C.L.A. Rehabilitation Center. Certificate Students: David N. Dupree, Miami, Florida; Leslie A. Dent, Billings, Montana; Joseph M. Mc-Guiness, San Jose, Calif.; Daryl L. Venema, Baltimore, Md.; Keith E. Vinnecour, Los Angeles, Calif.; Louis E. Wildman, Grand Junction, Colo.
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