Substantial Number of Our Troops Being Diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury
by admin on 29/09/11 at 5:28 am
The military has pulled about 9,000 servicemembers from combat for short periods of time to look for signs of brain injury after blasts that caused no obvious wounds, according to data given to USA TODAY. The mandatory examination is part of a treatment program put in place last year to uncover hidden and subtle damage to the brain caused by exposure to blasts — injuries that would have likely gone undiagnosed.
According to Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ”The data we are getting from theater demonstrates how important it is to get to the root of the problem early in order to attack it.” Under the rule, troops caught within about 165 feet of a blast must be pulled from combat for 24 hours and examined for signs of concussion. The data on the results of that policy are from August 2010 — when the treatment plan for concussions was initiated — through June.
Alarmingly, of the 9,000 service men and women who were pulled from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and examined, nearly 1,400 were found to have mild traumatic brain injury. These are folks who had no obvious wounds.
Kudos to the military for implementing this policy. Research showing that a second concussion could be exponentially more dangerous and could cause permanent brain damage helped pave the way for this policy. Prior to the policy, the servicemembers would likely have stayed in the fight because it was common practice to try to shake off the effects of a blast and keep fighting, said physician Michael Kilpatrick, a Pentagon health official.
Injured troops were often moved to special concussion treatment centers, Grimes said where they were monitored and treated until doctors concluded that their brain injuries had healed, a period that usually lasted about a week. Those with persistent problems were sent home. That’s the other important aspect of the military’s new policy. They recognize that while most people recover from a mild brain injury in a short period of time, some do not and suffer from persistent, long-term problems. The troops in the later category need to be sent home for rehabilitative care. “There’s just a greater awareness nationally that this is a much more serious thing than we’ve taken it for in the past,” Kilpatrick said, “that it’s not just a badge of courage to get knocked out, get up and keep going, but get the care you need at the time and then go forward.”
