"We can save you. But you might not be what you were."

[babylonsister]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-glasser_06edi.ART.State.Edition1.42f3621.html

Bomb blasts leave invisible injuries, too

Up to 30% of combat troops may face neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs, despite not suffering a scratch, says RONALD GLASSER

01:30 PM CDT on Sunday, May 6, 2007

"We can save you. But you might not be what you were."

–Neurosurgeon, Combat Support Hospital, Balad, Iraq

This is the new physics of war. Three 155 mm shells, linked together and combined with 100 pounds of Semtex plastic explosive, covered by canisters of butane or barrels of gasoline, can upend a 70-ton tank, destroy a Humvee or blow an engine block through the hood of a truck. Those deadly ingredients form the signature weapon of the war in Iraq: improvised explosive devices, known by anybody who watches the news as IEDs.

Some of the impact of these roadside bombs is brutally clear: Troops are maimed by projectiles, poisoned by clouds of bacteria-laced debris and burned by post-blast flames. But the IEDs have added a new dimension to battlefield injuries: Injuries and even deaths among troops who have no external signs of trauma but whose brains have been severely damaged. Iraq has brought back one of the worst afflictions of World War I trench warfare: shell shock. The brain of a soldier exposed to a roadside bomb is shocked, truly.

About 1,800 U.S. troops, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, are now suffering from traumatic brain injuries caused by penetrating wounds. But neurologists worry that hundreds of thousands more – at least 30 percent of the troops who've engaged in active combat for four months or longer in Iraq and Afghanistan – are at risk of potentially disabling neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs and mortars, despite not suffering a scratch.

For the first time, the U.S. military is treating more head injuries than chest or abdominal wounds, and it is ill-equipped to do so. According to a July 2005 estimate from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, two-thirds of all soldiers wounded in Iraq who don't immediately return to duty have traumatic brain injuries.

more...

[Monkeyman]

1. Seen up close the results of brain injury hell is it bad

[Solly Mack]

2. ...

...

[rockymountaindem]

3. Maybe Laura Bush would like to reconsider her incredibly stupid comment about her supposed suffering

... but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[patrice]

4. The brain is actually kind of mushy to begin with . . .

but NOT rubbery, like other body tissues . . . a severe shockwave compresses the whole thing against the inside of the skull. Pardon the comparison please, but think of throwing something the consistency of a peeled avocado against the wall.

[mcg]

5. hundreds of thousands at risk, awful

[Kurovski]

6. K&R. (nt)

[AwakeAtLast]

7. This is the very description of my husband

"at least 30 percent of the troops who've engaged in active combat for four months or longer in Iraq and Afghanistan – are at risk of potentially disabling neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs and mortars, despite not suffering a scratch."

There's not a scratch on him, but he was less than 8 feet away from a mortar blast. He has been to a neurologist and he is on medication.

And because you don't see his wounds, no Purple Heart.

He did receive a CAB, though, which he had to make sure he received.

Thanks for posting! :hi: