Thousands of GIs Cope With Brain Damage

[Snazzy]

Source: AP

Thousands of GIs Cope With Brain Damage
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

AP Medical Writer

3:07 PM EDT, September 9, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.

Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.

"I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program.

Doctors also are realizing that symptoms overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that both must be treated. Odd as it may seem, brain injury can protect against PTSD by blurring awareness of what happened.



Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-coming-home-wounded-brain-injuries,0,7423210.story

[Doctor_J]

1. Wanting to emulate the commander-in-chief, no doubt

Sorry for making light of this disaster...my hope is that * and Dick and Rummy and wolfie get to see some of their handiwork up close.

[ReadTomPaine]

2. I saw a family coping with the aftermath of TBI at a department store just a few days ago.

The young man lost a good percentage of his skull and hadn't finished all his surgery. His was out with his family, shopping.

This brave young man, despite the slurring of his speech and other symptoms, was clearly overjoyed to be alive and who can blame him? His kids were delighted to have him home as well... smiling, laughing and racing around their shopping cart sharing that special joy only young children can give a parent.

His wife, however, wore a tight, pale mask of anxiety and grief. This is a scene that will become familiar to families across this country, thanks to George and his useless war.

Here's a photo of Bob Woodruff that reminds me of that moment. They even look alike.

[Feral Libertarian]

3. I fear it is much larger than that

possibly 10's of thousands. I know a guy that joined the NG, sent to Iraq, and was KO'ed twice by IEDs. He was never hospitalized, he has never received any follow up care.

He was so FUBAR'ed that he was sent home after 8 months. His short term memory is FUBAR, and he recognizes this. He is trying to go on with his life, he just hired as a deputy sheriff here, and has made some very very bad decisions and violated peoples rights as a deputy. The Sheriff won't do squat about it, guess the "war vet" is untouchable.

I'm pissed at some of the actions the deputy has taken, but I am more pissed that our country will sucker him in, use him up, then tell him to piss off, when he became a liability. Now the residents of this county have a deputy with a gun prowling the county with serious closed head brain injury.

Brian, the deputy deserves better, and so do the rest of us.

And I guarantee you that he is not counted at all when the military lists the statistics on injuries. Shake it off kid, and get back in the game, we don't give a damn about you.