In the early 20th century, people with disabilities were generally cared for only by surgeons—who tried to “fix” them with operations but didn’t give much thought to their lives afterward. It wasn’t until after World War II that a former military doctor named Howard Rusk (1901–1989) convinced the nation that disabled people could be taught to improve their conditions and contribute meaningfully to society.

Rusk is known today as the father of comprehensive rehabilitative medicine. His ideas were largely shaped by two major events that occurred during his early medical career: the polio epidemic in the United States and World War II, both of which left behind large numbers of young, seriously handicapped people. An internist from St. Louis, Rusk enlisted in the army and was put in charge of medical services at the Jefferson barracks in Missouri. He quickly realized that his injured or disabled patients seemed to improve faster if they were challenged physically and intellectually, so he began designing activities to keep them busy and get them back on their feet. Increasingly, he became interested in soldiers who had become permanently disabled.

Soon Rusk was put in charge of rehabilitation programs at all air force hospitals. In 1943, he opened a special convalescent center in Pawling, New York, dedicated to the rehabilitation of servicemen, including concepts of physical, psychological, and vocational services. The program was so successful that it quickly ran out of space and was transferred to Long Island—and within 3 years, Rusk had introduced similar programs at 12 more air force medical centers. In the next few years, President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) made rehabilitation standard policy throughout all armed services branches.

After the war, Rusk joined the faculty of New York University School of Medicine and founded what is now a world-renowned rehabilitation facility. He was concerned with “what happens to severely disabled people after the stitches are out and the fever is down,” he said in a 1982 interview. His practice of treating the whole person and not just the injury or disability earned him the nickname “Dr. Live-Again.”

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Rusk’s many celebrity patients included Joseph P. Kennedy (1888–1969), the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and father of President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (1898–1980), and the baseball player Roy Campanella (1921–1993), who were treated at the Rusk Institute of the New York University Medical Center, the first institute for rehabilitation medicine in the world.
  2. From 1946 to 1969, Rusk was a columnist and part-time associate editor for the New York Times and wrote weekly about public health and disability issues.
  3. Howard Rusk Jr. succeeded his father in 1982 as president and chief executive officer of the World Rehabilitation Fund. The fund has helped train more than 6,000 doctors and specialists in more than 150 countries and helped provide more than 4 million people with artificial limbs and braces.