Clinic named after Travis Lee Brown set to open in Kathleen

KATHLEEN—A new clinic coming to Houston County, set to open Wednesday, Dec. 18. 

The Travis Lee Clinic, located at 201 Club Villa Court Building A, specializes in IV Ketamine Therapy and Vibroacoustic Therapy, according to co-owner Leslie Hernandez. The clinic also offers IV Hydration. 

“IV Ketamine is such a wonderful medication. Research has proven that it treats so many different conditions such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, postpartum depression, PTSD, suicidal ideation and treatment resistance depression,” she said. “The research has proven that [IV Ketamine] actually helps rewrite the brain as it actually helps stimulate the neurons and changes the lens that we look through when it comes to the past. Instead of it being a band-aid like medication, it will actually treat the cut as well.”

As for Vibroacoustic therapy, Hernandez said it is like a deep-tissue low-frequency sound massage. Overall, it is a holistic nervous system reset. 

“It uses hertz and frequencies that are transmitted throughout the body, but you also listen to an auditory music. [Vibroacoustic therapy] de-stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system,” she said.

The clinic is named after Travis Lee Brown, a close friend of Hernandez who took his own life two years ago after battling with anxiety, depression and PTSD. Brown served in the Air Force as a pararescue and was Pararescue of the Year. 

“He tried to go get help from the VA clinic, but he was looking for a more holistic option to where he wasn’t going to be on medication as he did not like the side effects of those medications,” she said. “Losing someone that great and wonderful was absolutely heartbreaking to me, my husband and everybody else. 

Hernandez said she and others knew Brown was struggling, but did not think the unthinkable would happen.

“He was charismatic, energetic, handsome and a charming person, and when he took his own life, it was absolutely devastating to everyone,” she said. 

Hernandez knows through and through that ketamine would have saved his life and said God has sent her and her husband on this mission to open the Travis Lee Clinic. 

“[IV] Ketamine is a therapy that could have helped that. I know that within my heart, my gut and my soul that if Travis would have had ketamine that he would still potentially be here. There are so many people that have lost their lives with suicide that would still be here today,” she said. “Research has shown that from 60 to 90 minutes in the time the infusion starts, if you’re having suicidal thoughts, [IV Ketamine] actually breaks that thought process.”

Hernandez mentioned that ketamine is used for many different things depending on the dosage. 

“It can be used for pain-treatment, what we’re doing now with mental health and chronic pain and also anesthesia,” she said. “Knowing that [ketamine] dissociates and breaks that [suicidal] thought process, there are so many people out here that we can help.” 

She feels very honored to be opening up this clinic in honor of Travis Lee Brown. The clinic opens on Dec. 18, which would have been Brown’s 40th birthday.

“It’s emotional to think you’re opening up a clinic because someone died, but within that loss, it’s a transformation because that loss meant something. His life meant so much and without that loss all these other people that I know that we’re going to be able to help in the future wouldn’t be here, so it is definitely an honor,” she said. “This is a whole different battle that we’re fighting as there is so much darkness out there.”

Hernandez added this clinic will honor the memory of Travis Lee Brown by saving more lives, as that was his calling in the Air Force.

“The saying for the Air Force for the pararescuemen is ‘that others may live’. He literally flew in a helicopter and jumped out of helicopters to save our soldiers,” she said. “With his legacy, that’s what we’re bringing into this community, saving more people on a different battlefront.”

Hernandez shared that opening this clinic is what Travis Lee Brown would have wanted. 

“We’re here to do God’s work and do what Travis would want by saving people, especially in an avenue that, unfortunately, he couldn’t get the treatment, however, in every situation there is always a light, and I think the light from Travis is that we’re going to save lives in a different way even though he is not here now.”

To keep up with the clinic, follow them on Facebook: “Travis Lee Clinic.”