After Iraq: Coping With Brain-Damaged GIs

Blast-Caused Injuries Very Different From What Doctors Back Home Are Used To Seeing

(AP)  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.

But as memory improves, emotional problems can emerge: One of the first "graduates" of Vanderbilt's program committed suicide three weeks later.

"Of all the ones here, he would not have been the one we would have thought," Schneider said. "They called him the Michelangelo of Fort Campbell" - a guy who planned to go to art school.

As more troops return from the war, brain injuries are a growing burden - for them, for the few programs to treat them, and for taxpayers who pay for their care and disability if they cannot hold jobs.

Most TBIs are mild, and most of these patients recover within a year. But one-fifth of the troops with these mild injuries will have prolonged or lifelong symptoms and need continuing care, the military estimates. Nearly all of the moderate and severe ones will, too.

Though the full number of those suffering from TBI is still unknown, the problem is straining the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Until now, "they were dealing with a cohort of aging veterans with diabetes, heart disease, lung disease," said Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and a VA adviser.

Now, these young, brain-injured troops need highly specialized care, and how much it will help long-term is unknown, he said.

People with TBI have frequent headaches, dizziness, and trouble concentrating and sleeping. They may be depressed, irritable and confused, and easily provoked or distracted. Speech or vision also can be impaired.

Some sufferers have been misdiagnosed with personality disorders. Others have lost jobs because of unrecognized and untreated symptoms.

"It's the so-called invisible injury. It's where a troop takes 10 times the normal time to pack his rucksack ... a complicated injury to the most complicated part of the body," said Dr. Alisa Gean, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.

Diagnosing it is imprecise - damage rarely shows up on CAT scans or other tests.

Treating it is even more difficult. Lacking a cure, doctors focus on symptoms - headaches, anxiety, vision problems, etc. But they lack good treatments for some of these, too, and are considering some experimental approaches being pushed by private companies with little proof they work.

Many troops get no care at all. Some are sent back to fight with their brain injuries undetected, especially if they had no obvious wounds.

What happened to Eric O'Brien and Bryan Malone shows the scope of this problem.

---

O'Brien, a 32-year-old Army staff sergeant from Iowa's Quad Cities, was teasing Malone, 22, a specialist from Haughton, La., in a Baghdad gym last summer.

[oakishpines]

'' ... the u.s. raped lots of baby girls in the names of dare and shock and awe and security, and accused junkies and muslims of raping lots of baby girls in the names of liberty and terror, and now the u.s. is nothing but girls with get well soon and feed the world that don''t invest in non charity and taxation ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... what''s it like to be a girl raped in dare grown up to pay taxes for more wars to rape more girls in more countrys schools? ... ''

'' ... it''s tiring just watching all the trillion dollar girls with their hands tied by the two dollar idiots raping all the men in their trillion dollar dare and shock and awe wars ... ''

'' ... trillion dollar empires always rape more babies than their two dollar empire neighbors, it''s not a question of if the good generals will be found guilty, it is a question of when ... ''

[cosmicfluke]

sure, they might be brain damaged, but think of what they''ve done for democracy!
if it weren''t for their noble sacrifice (of being poor enough to consider joining the military- like I did in ''84, so 4Q anyone who lips me that didn''t serve their country), those people would have been under the tyranny of Sadam.
(and, they''d have had electricity and running water and police protection and stuff worth seeing in their museums, to name just a few)

[mitywhity]

As more troops return from the war, brain injuries are a growing burden - for them, for the few programs to treat them, and for taxpayers who pay for their care and disability if they cannot hold jobs...................WHAT? If there is a soul on Earth that I would glady support it is these men and women who fought under our flag. Why is this kind of stark reality not even hinted at when the story is about illegal aliens sponging benefits off our country or New Orleans pre and post Katrina? Huh? How dare you even balk at the idea of caring for these people! They don''t fit your mold of a liberal-to-be or what? As if we don''t know that military hospitals are tax-payer supported. Go get a job at the Enquirer or something.

[sharncedar]

...I post a weird and nonsequitor post in verbiage alarming. My bizarre Iraqi brethren stick guns up my nether regions. Like Craig, I want to withdraw my plea, claiming I was premature. While psycho-rotted former troopers blast away at my arse, Abu-graibing me in tearful sullen silence, I read and digest the MSM, then take a big stinky sh-it containing the NRO...

My tribute to snidegrass and oakishpines, and all the other insane former soldiers. Semper Fi lads, or rather Sic Semper Tyrannus, an older and more preferable creed.

[azmka]

Oakishpine: WOW MAN! seek help!

[oakishpines]

'' ... if i starve, don''t let it be in a jurisdiction of non charity and taxation ... ''

'' ... the more big empire must be no more big than the more little one: most market share must go to the poorest soul, not the malnourished pauper, but the trillion dollar war lord ... if the militant baby girl may have her claim to all in the land, then that man too may rest easy ... ''

'' ... giving away free advertising to many entrepreneurs for small tips from a few is the ultimate capitalist adventure ... ''

'' ... don''t dance porno hike naked dance dressed get sick tax world get well feed world songs rallied round tens millions sick beds drifting tens millions studio cottage farm trail groups ... ''

'' ... eternal storyboards swimming infinite oceans of eternal storyboards ... ''

'' ... gathering wealth has little to do with harvesting at the neighbors but with assuring the neighbors have plenty to harvest ... ''

'' ... people don''t throw themselves off the backs of dragon to break all their bones for fun, silly ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... though i move across on the ground, the ground too moves across on me, though the trees look as statues, they dance, and as i dance between them, they too likely think i stand as still as a statue, though my wings and tails and fins and gills seem to me broken and lost, my flight grooves, i just don''t feel so well just now, but i only feel as such a statue, but i am not, and were i, i would be but like the trees, a seeming statue, but very very rhthmic and melodic just the same ... ''

'' ... if you want seven billion songs and dances and get well soon bouquets, just bomb vanhatten and they''re yours, but you can have them anyway by asking for them ... ''

'' ... if i tax the world today, my grandkids will get taxed tomorrow, if i get sick soon the world today, my grand kids will be get sick sooned tomorrow ... how cool is that ... ''

'' ... ''people are not a bunch of baby *** rapists'' they screamed as they dared us and dared us and dared us ... ''

'' ... the story of the string with the detachable, retachable 7 billion loose ends makes me think of the web of govts, the internet, the dirt and spore blooms, the universe, and a great big dream, one dream, 7 billion folk for loose ends, 10 billion years for loose ends, trillions of stars and planets and galaxys and infinite eternitys for loose ends ... i never know when the alarm clock will pierce the sky, calling me away as the dream does end ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... the pharoah dictator, not an individual, just some phantom amalgum of sociological institutions, anyway the the princess had a problem, 7 billion fraid ends that were no problem, that come and go and swap and interchange free and easy, but tied together with a string that connected all the people, like two cups and a string, but seven billion fraid ends and a string, the string a fickle dragon more fickle than most, the princess was confused, at times she felt good about the dragon and the backups in reserve, and at times she knew just how high maintenance a string was that dragon, it drove her to kicking stars and planets out of the sky to save the galaxys, just ridiculous as it only leads to kicking universes to save eternitys, the men loved her, she tried to feed them and they loved that, it was a prequisite, but she did it wrong and in all the worst ways, and that, to them, made her priceless and adorable, to try to save them was noble, to screw it up royally was irresistable, though they could loathe her at times, they''d suffer hell like huvans cannot imagine for her, they were born, the men, in basic training, girls though, they were born with scarcely any teflon and kevlar in their veins whatsoever and tho it oft improved with age, many of them started out horribly equipped ... and the men all were enamored by that tremendously ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... the good generals will build an eternity of infinite numbers of eternitys where they no more are forced by the people to invest there dollars and votes in non charity and taxation,they will afford themselves infinite divergence, meaning anyone may slay and slayve them at will without bringing any real harm or suffering or other detention to them, and having built that eternity, they will find that that eternity was already built for them long before they built it ... ''

'' ... there''s no 14 billion billion year old get well feed world girls to teach men how to shift shapes and toggle between holograph & realtime and to travel the local universes and eternitys at the speed of thought ... so teasing ... ''


'' ... nerf buses and nerf carts need lots of air and water and surface area and less density, kids wave their arms and legs and torsos and heads in the air and buses and carts move and buses and carts move planets and moons, transmissions of energy in - leverage - recycle - leverage - energy out ... nuclear is a chainsaw pruning a finger nail ... ''

'' ... the garden was crafted of useless star swallowing compost that craves to breathe and drink ... and to dance like haphazard moss draped across haphazard bones of branches swishing around in haphazard dirt splintered with speckles of drip air and drip water and drip fertile ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... if i tax the world today, my grandkids get taxed tomorrow, if i dare and shock and awe the world today, my grandkids get dared and shocked and awed tomorrow, if i get sick soon the world today, my grand kids get sick sooned by the world tomorrow ... how cool is that ... ''



'' ... ''people are not a bunch of baby *** rapists'' they screamed as they dared us and dared us and dared us ... ''



'' ... the story of the string with the detachable, retachable 7 billion loose ends makes me think of the web of govts, the internet, the dirt and spore blooms and such, the universe, and a great big dream, one dream, 7 billion folk for loose ends, 10 billion years for loose ends, trillions of stars and planets and galaxys for loose ends, infinite eternitys for loose ends ... i never know when the alarm clock will pierce the sky, calling me away as the dream does end ... ''



'' ... don''t dance porno hike naked dance dressed get sick tax world get well feed world songs rallied round the tens millions sick beds drifting the tens millions farm trail groups ... ''

[myidoncbs]

renrivers, a obviously violent man, says, "I wouldn''t blame one of the for taking you out, for saying such utter nonsense"

renrivers, the military today is not at all like the military in the days of the Vietnam war. These people are all "volunteers", mercenaries. They chose to be soldiers, either because of economic hardship, and they were sufficiently un-intelligent to believe the lies of the recruiters, or they chose the soldier''s life because they wanted to "defend America". But they are NOT defending America. They illegally invaded a foreign nation so Bush''s oil buddies could steal their oil. How intelligent can they be to do Bush + Cheneys evil bidding?

The point of my previous posting was that, despite the fact that I think they are st-upid, I still feel sorry for the pain and suffering they have experienced and will continue to experience. That comment hardly justifies a death threat.

[myidoncbs]

mitch0927 said, "If it weren''t for the "retards" as you put it, you wouldn''t hsve the freedom to post a senseless comment on here like you did."

Mitch, you have fallen for the LIE that the men of women who are being wounded, maimed, and killed in Iraq are somehow fighting for my "freedom". They are not. They are fighting for the NeoCon pipe dream of "pacifying" the middle east by forcibly creating "democracies" which will hand over their oil to the invading army.

It hasn''t worked. It will never work.

Instead of creating freedom, they are delivering death and destruction. This breeds hatred and resentment, which will eventually lead to more violence.

If you can''t understand this, Mitch, then you are the one who is mentally challenged.

[tnt1954]

won''t you help cure ficklings disease.
please the world needs a cure.
be fickle no longer. send 40 million dollars
if you can afford it to your county health
dept.today. govt. research is more trustworthy
they do not have a profit motive. or a motive
to get out of paying taxes. public health
service in d.c. needs your help too.
cure this disease before its too late.
see below. if only i were joking.

[tnt1954]

the medical community issues apology to all
involved. around 1300 a.d. in the medical
literature, not understood by the general
population, a strange and bizarre disease
appeared in england, norfolk county, norwich
shire. it seemed to occur in the fickling
family. they were known for their argumentativeness
and fickle behavior. their decisions were
sometimes one way, or another way, sometimes
they were absolutely indecisive. they''d go with
this wench, and marry her, making merry, and
then off with another. never being able
to really just sit and be with just her.
the fickling women were almost known as terrorists
in the county. but they were the lords of the
manor and to the manor born. they would
cuff anyone across the mouth for daring to
cross their path. same with their menfolk.
they seem to have mellowed with time. the
theory was it was some kind of plague. a germ
of some kind, only carried by the ficklings
causing this radical change in behavior.
the disease began to spread, sometimes thought
to be sexually transmitted. in the elizabethean
era of absolute bawdiness it went wild.
and we see it today in girls gone wild
and other similar behaviors. this promiscuity
or sexual behavior of absolute fickleness
can be traced to the fickling family.
of which i am a member. through absolutely
miraculous self-control i am beating the
disease somehow. others in the family are
not so fortunate. the disease has now spread
world-wide.

[jn122736]

some of the comments here just go to show that there is no depth to which Bush apologists will not stoop to.

Their character and integrity are indeed on a level with that of their hero.

[bareemperor]

Poor troops, sent to act as human targets by a brain-damaged president...
The Bu$h Crusades is doomed, as was the Papal Crusades. Both were militaries, bankrolled by innocent''s stolen dollars, steered by greed and hatred. Guess we never learn.

[lars008-2009]

It''''s hard to care too much about re-tards who chose a career of murder and mayhem
Posted by MyIDonCBS at 11:59 AM : Sep 10, 2007

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry

USA''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961

One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein

[infidel_us]

No problem......we deal with BRAIN DAMAGED LIBERALS, everyday! (I know, brain damaged liberal is a redundant statement.)

[sandy19731]

What a terrible thing to say about wounded soldiers. I wouldn''''t blame one of the for taking you out, for saying such utter nonsense.

Gee, seems like a pretty harsh penalty for the free speech our soldiers are fighting for.