Posted on 09/09/2007 12:43:59 PM PDT by james500
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
That’s funny, nobody complained about what the Democrat Party had done to it’s members. And if they aren’t brain damaged, the troops have absolutely nothing to worry about.
America is plagued by an epidemic of brainless reporters.
The Leadership in Iraq has Failed
The Health of our Troops is Failing
My dog has fleas
I see mislead people...
If the moonbats and the press would shut up, maybe our troops could nail a few more of these terrorists before they set off their bombs.
It’s a tough fight when you have strict rules of engagement and may be prosecuted for killing the enemy, while the enemy has no rules of engagement at all.
If not for the traitors at AP and their friends, there would be a lot fewer roadside bombs going off.
Democrats are always looking for a boondoggle. I think this is one, the agent orange of this war that can only be addressed by lots of agitation and mucho money..
Yeah, brain damaged troops is pretty funny, huh? You should keep in mind that it’s their sacrifice that gives you the right to make classless little jokes at their expense in the first place.
So, should we just ignore it and make it go away? What if the story is accurate? There have been about 26,000 wounded out of this war, and for the first time in our military history a lot of them got their wounds through IEDs. What percentage are injuries of this type and what do we do about it are very real questions and we owe the soldiers affected some solutions.
I pray dear Heavenly Father you be a comfort for these that willingly gave of themselves to be our front-line in that dessert sand protectors.
If the reports are real, then the troops will get all the sympathy they deserve.
If you haven’t noticed over the decades, the left has found countless maladies that are supposed to be aflicting the troops, but they never seem to pan out like they claim they will.
Think about it. These are the folks who dispise the troops in the field of theater, but now we’re supposed to believe they have the troops best interest at heart. Remember also, these are the same people that flock to Walter Reed to trash our troops who are wounded.
I just don’t buy into the report. There will be enough time for that if it is real.
My wife and I were on a railroad museum train trip recently and there was a group of about 15 WWII veterans on board. We got to talking about Iraq, and EVERY one of them said that they voted for Bush, not all older Americans are AARP Democrats, but thought that he was a lousy CIC.
The rules of engagement are not dictated by the MSM, but by the Bush administration. That is a fact! I will agree that the Rats are making it hard on him and fight him at every turn, but Bush is the CIC and the buck stops at his desk. Do not take me the wrong way, Kerry would have been MANY times worse.
This article isn’t a Bush bash and shouldn’t be represented as one - unless its considered here that stories of wounded troops returning from war are ipso facto pro terrorist pieces.
You don’t buy into the report?
I invite you to walk the halls of a VA hospital treating GI’s injured in Afgahnistan and Iraq.
Just because we don’t like it- doesn’t mean it’s not real.
It’s real, and disdain for the media doesn’t diminish the FACT that thousands of injured GI’s are permanently damaged.
It’s a hell of a price. Is it worth it? Yes. I know this because I’ve talked with many of them- and THEY say it’s worth it. I let them have the last word on the subject and I believe them because it is THEY that are paying- not me and not you.
Since when is the AP and Newsday on the side of our troops?
Honestly folks, you don’t see ulterior motive here?
Is there an epidemic? You tell us since you’re the expert.
So you walk up to the troops you visit and ask them what their diagnosis is? Really? That wouldn’t be my tac, but perhaps you do have some insight on this.
Tell me, is there an epidemic? This whole report wreaks of disinformation to me.
I haven’t seen a report out of AP or Newsday for years that was favorable to our troops. But now, this is has to be.
IMO, this is just playing to the leberals who are looking for anything to point to, in order to force a pull out now.
I do respect our troops. I do value their service and I do value their losses. But I’ll be darned if I’m going to allow them to be fodder for the left, unless there’s irrefutable proof that the malady does exist, and there is an epidemic (huge ammount of injuries) across the board, as inimated in this article.
If it’s real, report it. If it’s not, then report it accurately at least. That’s all I ask.
Ditto.
Have you ever seen the reaction when you tell the Agent Orange activists that the members of Operation Ranch Hand (who sprayed the stuff from the aircraft) drank it as part of an initiation for new crew members?
IIRC it was about 1 Dixie cup full mixed with booze. Some of them got a mild case of chloracne but none had any long term effects.
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