NOTE: Reporters may contact Dr. Leona Fischer for interviews at drleona@aol.com

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Illinois doctor wins “Chiropractor of the Year” award

Chandler, Ariz – Leona Fischer, a Naperville, Ill., doctor of chiropractic, has been named the recipient of the “Chiropractor of the Year” award by the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA), an international professional association.

Dr. Fischer received the award primarily in recognition of her efforts as a member of the Chiropractic Advisory Committee to the U.S. Veterans Administration to secure chiropractic services for veterans.

“I want to be able to ensure that all of our veterans – our nation's true heroes – are given the chance to receive subluxation correction,” she stated after accepting the appointment. “It's important to me that they receive the best care possible, and that means adjustments from doctors of chiropractic.”

Subluxations are misalignments in the vertebrae that can cause interference with normal nerve function. Chiropractors are the only health care professionals specifically trained to detect and correct subluxations.

Prior to becoming a chiropractor, Dr. Fischer served as a medic in U.S. Navy Special Operations and was assigned to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. She was awarded two Navy Achievement Medals for rendering primary care and triage to five Special Ops members who suffered severe trauma during a parachute accident. Her military service took her to assignments throughout the U.S., as well as Africa, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Bermuda.

“I was usually the only medical support in the rural places we traveled,” she explains. “While working with these guys, I was not satisfied with the quality of care we were limited to. They often had musculoskeletal injuries and we kept giving them ‘vitamin M’ – Motrin – to fix it. That's when I began my quest for true health.”
While still in the Navy, Dr. Fischer attended massage therapy school and discovered chiropractic. “I had worked in the medical field for a long time and I knew medicine wasn't for me. I wanted to provide my patients with a high quality of life through my care. Chiropractic school was my only option,” she stated.

After graduation from Life University in 1998, she returned Illinois and opened a private practice. She became a member of the World Chiropractic Alliance International Board of Governors and, in 2002, was appointed to the VA Committee. The committee was charged with developing recommendations for Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi on how doctors of chiropractic should be integrated into the VA health care system.

Her primary goal was to ensure that all veterans were guaranteed access to chiropractic care. “I'm a Navy Veteran and my husband is a Gulf War Veteran,” she stated. “I'm also a doctor of chiropractic who firmly believes in the value of subluxation correction. Before making any recommendation, I wanted to be sure it would be in the best interest of the seven million veterans served by the VA health care system.”

An important provision for Dr. Fischer was the right of veterans to see a doctor of chiropractic for subluxation correction without having to be referred by a medical doctor or other provider. “All American citizens have the right to see a D.C. without a referral,” she argued. “Why couldn't our veterans?”

The fight to secure this right for veterans was applauded by the chiropractic profession and the World Chiropractic Alliance, and was a key reason for her nomination as “Chiropractor of the Year.”

“Her work on the VA Advisory Committee has taken a strong heart and the work of a peaceful warrior,” stated WCA Board Member Veronica Gutierrez, D.C.

The award will be formally presented later this year during the organization’s International Summit in Washington, D.C.

The World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) is an international organization representing doctors of chiropractic and promoting the traditional, drug-free and non-invasive form of chiropractic as a means of correcting vertebral subluxations that cause nerve interference.

The WCA is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, and publisher of the peer-reviewed chiropractic research journal, Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research. For more information, contact the WCA at 800-347-1011 or visit www.worldchiropracticalliance.org.