25,000 wounded went through Landstuhl hospital...

[TreasonousBastard]

since we started in Afghanistan.

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http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29643&archive=true

LANDSTUHL, Germany — Landstuhl Regional Medical Center recently surpassed a hallmark number in its treatment of patients injured in operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

A combination of more than 25,000 troops, civilians and coalition members from 37 countries involved in the global war on terrorism has received treatment at Landstuhl.

The medical center, which treated its first patient from OEF in fall 2001, reached the 25,000 patient mark this July Fourth.

“As we fight for our freedom, it’s on the day of our independence that we hit that milestone patient here,” said Col. James M. Francis, Landstuhl commander. “For the staff here at Landstuhl, that was one more workday as usual.”

<...>

[Hissyspit]

1. "Yay, you're our 25,000 customer! Congratulations!"

"Sorry about your leg and your eye and that piece of your skull!"

Idiot doesn't have a clue...

[DanCa]

8. And to top it off he wants to cut thier benifits too

You know I never knew the meanning of hate before. Thank you very much mister president. I actually learned something from you.

[Bozita]

2. We're fighting for OUR FREEDOM?

Somebody please pass the oxygen.

[AwakeAtLast]

3. Kicked and nominated.

People don't understand that 25,000 injuries 30 years ago could easily have been 15,000+ deaths. With the improvements in body armour and medical care, the injuries are abnormally high compared with the death rate. I say this to people all the time and they just look at me all glassy eyed. They only look at body counts, not counting those poor soldiers and civilians who will never be the same again. :grr: :grr:

[Desertrose]

5. and we know how much * cares for our troops by the way he cut funding

to care for them while they are fighting and after they come back.
:grr:

I agree 25k+ wounded (maimed is more like it I'm afraid) is outrageous...and how many died off the "battlefield" aka Iran & Afghanistan??

All this insanity wounds my heart.....

[TreasonousBastard]

6. That's the hidden message of this article...

a puff piece for Landstuhl by Stars&Stripes.

The present medical systems the military now use are phenomenal for lifesaving and restoration. In the old days, even in Gulf I, the death rate would have been much higher, as would injuries taking them out of combat. But, this good news is still conflicting.

The downside is that the injury rate is still so high, and they are able to patch up so many more to go back into combat. As much as we are happy to see them live when they might not have before, they often live simply to be sent out and risk death and further injury again.

The 25,000 is only the number through Landstuhl. The ones patched up and sent back out in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan could be much higher.

One of the things we teach in conscientious objector counseling is that choosing a medical field in the military is not necessarily a good thing, and many COs have had rude awakenings as combat medics. Unlike civilian hospitals, EMS, etc, the military medical systems are set up to first try to patch them up enough so they can go back and be effective fighters. It is NOT designed to make them well.

[knitter4democracy]

10. And they're horrible injuries

Brain damage, lost limbs, nerve damage, all sorts of things that have wrecked their lives (or at least seriously changed them).

I live with chronic pain, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's disgusting that we have so many casualties and it's just not talked about enough.

[Solly Mack]

4. I'd have called 25k injured a tragedy

but that's just me

[mikelewis]

9. Good call but these were soldiers not actual people, so....

[Sapphire Blue]

7. An interview w/Dr. Gene Bolles, chief of neurosurgery in Germany

The Unknown Soldiers

By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet. Posted October 21, 2004.

Gene Bolles has seen more than his fair share of human suffering. Two years in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center – the U.S. military hospital in Germany that receives all injured soldiers evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan – is no doctor's dream job, especially not if you are a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain and spinal injuries – the kind that can destroy a 19-year-old kid's life. Yet as he speaks of the shattered soldiers who were once his charge, Bolles is neither overwrought nor angry.

The soft-spoken 62-year-old civilian speaks not of politics but of humanity – the terrible toll imposed by all wars, unjust or otherwise, on all involved, soldier or civilian. He speaks not of blame but of compassion and duty – our duty as a nation to pay attention and tend to the young men and women we ask to sacrifice life or limb in battle. At a time when the reality of the suffering in Iraq has been rendered invisible by media hype and partisan battle, Gene Bolles remains a steadfast advocate for the scarred, the maimed, and the tormented – whose numbers are far, far greater than what the Bush administration would like to admit.

<snip>

But many of these soldiers are not included in the numbers put out by the Pentagon for soldiers wounded in action in Iraq, which is right now around 7,500. Is there an important distinction between combat and non-combat related injuries?

Well, you should probably look up a military manual to get the definitions exactly right, but here's how I understand it: Say you're on duty, something blows up or you get shot, that's what they call a combat injury. But if you get in a truck accident or a Humvee rolls over you, that's defined as non-combat. So you can get a Purple Heart for the former and not for the latter.

And yes, we don't hear about the non-combat injuries and illnesses. I've seen figures that are now upwards of 30,000. I know that at least 20,000 have been air-evacuated into the Landstuhl system. These are also people who have suffered doing what we as a country are asking of them. As to why they're not recognized, they seem to be of lesser importance in that they're not mentioned. I don't think that's fair.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20254/