Legawiec, an Air Force veteran, is a program analyst in VA health informatics helping to implement the medical center’s electronic health records system, set to be operational next June.
Korey, also nicknamed “Snaxs,” is Legawiec’ service dog, a companion dog trained by the Xenia non-profit 4 Paws for Ability to help Legawiec navigate life with a prosthetic limb. A growing number of VA employees have long delighted in the dog’s approachable but calming presence.
Service dogs tend to be highly trained and observant, helping owners push through everyday life in all kinds of environments.
Very rarely does Legawiec go anywhere without Korey. They have been companions since 2019.
“He (Korey) is very personable,” said Christina Re, who also works on the VA’s health informatics team, and once shared office space with Legawiec and Korey. “He greets us all. He’s just like a co-worker. He just comes in, tells everybody ‘Hi,’ and he goes to his spot.”
“But he definitely listens to Joel,” added Re, who also acts as the medical center’s engagement lead for the modernization of the electronic health records system. “We know not to interrupt his training. We know that he is truly skilled and what he’s here for.”
“Everybody in the office fell in love with him,” Legawiec said. “We were in a meeting one day, and Christina and I were kind of joking that he guided us to use him as a mascot.”
The mascot idea, as Legawiec put it, “completely blew up.”
Now, the local medical center has adopted the dog in some of its marketing materials and in team-building fanfare for the electronic records effort. And the national Department of Veterans Affairs has caught on, spotlighting Korey on its website in recent months.
The center’s Change Leadership Team — a team of employees overseeing aspects of the electronic records rollout — has adopted Korey as an honorary member and mascot.
At a recent Change Leadership Team event, all agreed that Korey was the star of the show, drawing traffic and interest at his booth.
Re added: “He has been a huge part of all of us.”
The medical center, found on the VA’s West Third Street campus, will be among nine VA medical facilities that will move to electronic health records next year.
“We’re using him to kind of improve engagement and get people involved,” Legawiec said.
Korey helps Legawiec not just with balance but with what he called “PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) correction.” The dog has an uncanny ability to sense when his owner is troubled or distracted, and he can gently intervene.
“He knows when one of us kind of needs that extra loving,” Re said. “He’ll just be there.”
Legawiec, 46, lost part of his left leg in a motorcycle-vehicle collision 19 years ago after he left the Air Force. Korey can act as a guide when Legawiec has balance challenges. If he drops something — for example, a credit card — he often retrieves it.
“On the PTSD-correction side of things, he’s trained to kind of break my thought process,” Legawiec said. “He will kind of get into my face. The command when he was trained with was ‘muzzle.’ He’ll just come right up and get into my face.”
In a previous position as a contractor working on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, he learned of 4 Paws for Ability, which trains and places service dogs with children and veterans with disabilities.
“It was kind of an accident, but it totally worked out in my favor,” Legawiec said.
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