Iraq injuries differ from past wars: More amputations, brain traumas

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=716&e=23&u=/usatoday/20050228/ts_usatoday/iraqinjuriesdifferfrompastwarsmoreamputationsbraintraumas

The war in Iraq (news - web sites) is producing a group of young combat veterans who face a lifelong struggle to cope with physical wounds so severe, they might not have lived through previous conflicts.


The nation's system of veterans' health care is already seeing the first of those men and women, saved by modern battlefield medicine but in need of long-term rehabilitation. While their numbers are not nearly as large as the injured from Vietnam or World War II, the severity of their wounds is often greater than from previous wars.


"What is important is the really more profound nature of their injuries," says Tony Principi, the Veterans Affairs secretary during President Bush (news - web sites)'s first term.


While armored vehicles and jackets sometimes protect vital organs, the car bombs and booby-trap explosions so common in Iraq have left American soldiers with catastrophic amputations and serious brain trauma.

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[Stella_Artois]

1. Its terrible really

Modern medical science is a wonderful thing and has saved countless lives, but people who would otherwise be dead live on with little quality of life.

I don't know whether to be thankful that they live, or sorry that some of them are now prisoners in a ruined body.

[liberalcenter]

2. Brain Trauma is the next PTSD

My dad's a Vietnam vet and they had to fight for 20 years to get PTSD recognized.. How long is it going to take for the new vets with head injuries to get help?

[Zerex71]

3. Hey, but it's worth it, isn't it?

After all, Saddam was a murderous thug--no, wait, he gassed his own people--no, wait, they want democracy--oops, I mean, those are mobile bioweapons labs--umm, I mean, they hate our freedoms--or was it they have WMD? I forget which...