(we all know some of the terrible toll these illegal, unjust and immoral wars are taking on our soldiers and their families. this is just one aspect of it, covered by an independent paper in one of the reddest counties in the country, with a heavy military presence)
DAMN all those who created this tragedy, and all their enablers and supporters.
. . . . . .
The "signature wound'
The work ahead for Salamo and fellow soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, will be enormous, as will be the strain on the families and communities that will care for them. According to research published earlier this year, about 320,000 U.S. troops have suffered mild to severe brain injuries fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001.
TBI-related treatment costs the Army up to $910 million per year — and that's for just the tiny fraction of these soldiers who actually pursue and receive medical care. Though screening for brain injuries became standard for returning soldiers at Fort Carson in 2005, many slipped through the cracks before then.
Some argue that today's injured soldiers need more help. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and nine other senators wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week, asking him to increase medical coverage for brain-injured veterans coming home from Iraq. They call traumatic brain injuries the "signature wound of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan" and argue that cognitive rehabilitation therapy — like Salamo's work with the speech pathologist — should be covered by TRICARE, the military's health insurance.
Tricare spokesman Austin Camacho counters that it is covered, as long as it's combined with other types of rehab.
Col. Heidi Terrio, a physician and chief of deployment health at Fort Carson's Evans Army Community Hospital, says she cannot yet give an exact number of brain injuries suffered by the 25,000 soldiers who have been screened in the past three years; the number will appear in an upcoming study. Though deployment lengths have varied, she suggests the injury is found in around 18 percent of soldiers deployed for a year.
Most of the soldiers who stick it out with their units have what's considered a mild brain injury; between 67 and 93 percent return to normal within three months, Terrio says.
"The brain is a remarkable thing," Terrio says. "It recovers well."
When it doesn't, though, soldiers can have family problems or become violent, homeless or dependent on drugs or alcohol.
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http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A28234
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