Cross posted to Turn Maine Blue http://www.turnmaineblue.com/...
Cross posted to VetVoice http://www.vetvoice.com/...
TBI--Traumatic Brain Injury. Have you heard of TBI? Some have but don’t know much about it. The VA began noticing it in Iraq Vets 2-3 years ago. Social security only considered it as a disability about 6 years ago. It was only then, that it was put on their list as an illness eligable for Social Security Disability Insurance(SSDI).
A traumatic brain injury is usually the result of a sudden, violent blow to the head. Such a blow can launch the brain on a collision course with the inside of the skull. The skull itself can often withstand a forceful external impact without fracturing. The result — an injured brain inside an intact skull — is known as a closed-head injury.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/...
Laymans terms for TBI in Iraq. TBI can be caused by the concussion from several forces. It can be from an actual object. In Iraq, most TBI's are from the immense force of air exiting an explosion & it hits our Vets so hard, their brain collides with their skull. IED's are the cause of TBI to Vets of Iraq. Many in the blast raidius of an IED receive no physical injury but still have TBI. The symptoms vary greatly. It is similiar to what happens to a boxer over a long career but is usually not as obvious as it is when you hear a long time boxer speak in his later years, but it can be. TBI from an explosion concussion is similiar to what happens in shaken baby syndrome.
If there is no object that hit the head or an open head wound then there are no obvious signs of a head injury. The majority of TBI's of Iraq Vets are closed head wounds. The signs of it can almost never be seen even on a CAT Scan. Often even the Vet doesn't know there is a problem for days, weeks or even months. Symptoms can go from mild memory problems to complete inability to function on ones own with even routine daily activities.
If you don't know about it or you have not heard the term, you are sure to hear it often in the near future. I don't mean from this diary. I mean that soon the term TBI is going to be as well known as PTSD.
The VA had not recognized this condition until about 2-3 years ago. The VA and the military now admit it is at epidemic proportions. For numerous reasons it took the military a couple years into the Iraq war to recognize this problem. It has never been seen in any other war or at least not recognized.
Field medics "save" more lives than in any war in our history. Between advancements in field medical care and body armor and kevlar helmets and more, we have reduced deaths to a fraction of past wars. Our brave young men and women in uniform are now paying in many other ways than with their lives. Non physical ways that will haunt them for the rest of their life.
I have been talking about this on Kos for a couple months on every diary that it related to. It is a personal issue to me. I have TBI from an auto accident in 1999 and from the brain surgery from that accident. My TBI is mild to mildly moderate. The problems my TBI has caused consists primarily of three things, memory issues both long and short term, a drastically reduced ability to multi task and my written communication skills are about 50% of what they were (verbal about the same). These three issues are what ended my 20 year career in transportation management, sales and marketing.
It is very common with brain injuries to have some mental health issues. In my case that is in the form of mild bi-polar disorder. It has been almost 9 years since my accident. I have adapted many ways to cope with the issues my TBI has caused. Many "tricks of the trade" if you will. Additionally I have worked with marvelous doctors both for my TBI, mild bi-polar and physical injuries caused by my accident (3 fractured vertebrae). We have my medication regiment stable.
I am fine, my life is truly wonderful. I have an amazing wife. We were married 2 yrs ago. I have 2 wonderful children who are now adults and a granddaughter I adore. I have a wonderful and supportive family. I am a very lucky man. I am O.K. financially thanks to SSDI and medically thanks to the VA. My accident has changed my life for the better in many ways. I know that sounds odd but it is true. If you have seen the movie with Harrison Ford called, "Regarding Henry", my story is similar but not as drastic either before or after our "accidents". My higher power has been good to me. We need to all save our empathy for the veterans who suffer far worse than I ever have.
Many of the Vets returning will not have the advantages I had.
I do know what those first few years with TBI and the resulting mental issues are going to be like for our Vets. The first few years are difficult and trying. It is frustrating, humiliating and difficult to accept. There are periods of denial, anger, self pity and hopefully, finally acceptance.
Before I got to acceptance, I was so stubborn that I would not face that I was unemployable. Hard to face that I couldn't do the work I had done all my adult life, that I was very good at and loved doing. I was unemployed for over two years and lived off a settlement I got from my auto accident. It was not until that settlement money was almost gone before I would even consider filing for disability. When I did it went through as fast as is possible with SSDI. I had a review at three years and it was determined it should be continued and I don't have another review for seven years (maximum granted).
Once they get to acceptance, then their life can get better and they can learn ways to adapt and work around their issues. They can learn to ask for help and where to get the best help. They can learn to admit to others about their issues. There is hope. They need a support team, family and friends. They even need caring strangers, that's where we can come in.
I do not want anyone's pity. As I said, today my life is wonderful. I am truly the happiest and most content I have ever been in my entire life.
I tell you these personal things for a few reasons. So you have some idea of what our young men and women with TBI are going to face. To help you if you ever choose to help some of them. To understand that the numbers we hear about killed and injured are a fraction of the toll this war has taken on our kids in the military. Some will give up. Some will turn to alcohol/drugs. Some will commit suicide. These are just facts. YOU can help these people. YES, you.
Remember, my TBI is mild to mild/moderate. I am what is called mild bi-polar. 95% of these Vets will be in far worse shape than I ever was. Add PTSD, their youth (I am 49) and many other factors and their battle those first few years will be 10X what I experienced. Most won't have the money or the amount of family support I had or the quality of doctors I had. Many will need our help.
Back to the diary and off me, me, me and my high horse.
I dropped comments here and there on Kos for a couple of months about TBI and what I learned from my reserch regarding our Vets of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meteor Blades wrote an essay (Thur 11/1, 1 am) about the number of deaths and wounded in Iraq since 3/20/03 (start of Iraq war). He gave us the number of wounded Americans as 28,171 since the start of Iraq. IMHO, history will determine the US invasion of Iraq to be one of the most catastrophic decisions ever made by a POTUS and his administration in the history of our nation.
Meteor's essay early Thrusday morning caused me to write a longer comment than any of my previous. During the day Thursday, I posted the "enhanced" comments on a couple diaries which related to Iraq vets. I also posted my comments on a few of Thursday's open threads. When I posted on the 9pm open thread, one comment recommended I make it a diary and that comment had 6 recommends. I assumed, that was the 6 recommenders way of agreeing with him/her about making it a diary. So, here we are. I never intended to write a diary on this subject. If it is any good, thank MeteorBlades and the guy/woman from last night, but please give me recommendations and tips:)(they dont get that much credit:))
I like numbers and statistics and this is an issue that needs quantifying. I started with Meteor's number of injuries. I am going to throw some numbers at you. I did all my own calculations before I had solid proof in the form of articles with numbers and stats. I was very pleased when I found an article by the military that proved my approximations to be quit accurate. I will outline my calculations in addition to presenting the actual military verification. There are also calculations after the militaries numbers.
28,171 is the number Meteor gave as currently recognized as injured in combat in Iraq. Those are physical injuries.
Due to the nature of non physical injuries like PTSD and TBI we need to multiply the number of physical injuries to come up with an approximate number for TBI, PTSD & other mental health issues.
Considerig IED's and the number killed/injured there must have been about 3 to 5 additional military personnel in the blast radius for a TBI. Also taking into account the history of PTSD and mental health issues from combat, I chose to multiply the physical injuries by 5. Five times 28,171 comes to about 140K and the war is not over yet.
Look at this in the block quotes below from our US military report in ARMY TIMES. Maybe my TBI isn't that bad after all.
"Between 125,000 and 150,000 U.S. troops may have suffered mild, moderate or severe brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pascrell estimates. That’s a hidden population of wounded that far exceeds the official casualty figures of 26,000. Between 10 percent and 20 percent of the returning troops screened at a few individual military bases may have suffered brain injuries, Pentagon spokesman Chuck Dasey says."
ARMY TIMES, May 2007.
http://www.armytimes.com/...
Rather than my estimate of 140K, let's go with the figure from ARMY TIMES. This was an older article and had injuries at 26K instead of Meteor's 28K. So we will begin here by using ARMY TIMES high end of 150K.
Since the war is not over, we have no idea when it will be and the military always under estimates such numbers, we need to add 15% to the conservative number of 150K. That comes to 172K Vets with TBI IF the war does not go on more than a couple more years.
We need to multiply that 172K by 3. Why multiple it by 3? Because of all the items under walking wounded listed below. To this point I have been talking only about TBI and the article above in ARMY TIMES was talking only about TBI.
Walking wounded and SOME results and SOME effects:
TBI (traumatic brain Injury)
PTSD
Alcohol and drug abuse
Suicides
Divorces
Inability to hold a job
That is to name just some of the walking wounded.
172K multiplied by three is 516K. YES, 516,000 military personnl who now or soon will suffer from TBI, PTSD or other mental health issues. Just staggering.
Some facts to put this 516K into perspective.
Between active duty military, reservists and national guard there are 2.5 million military personnel. That is it, that is our entire military population
http://www.census.gov/...
516K is more than 20% of our entire military force all inclusive that suffers (or soon will) from TBI, PTSD or some mental illness and/or a combination of these.
1 out of every 5 in our entire milirary force has an unseen illness that they will carry the remainder of their life. This will result in incalcuable misery of all forms for the individual, their family and their friends.
There are only 31 cities in all of the USA with populations over 516K.
http://www.infoplease.com/...
There were about 670K Americans wounded in WWII in four years. These estimates put just the "mental health" issues from Iraq at 516K.
Sure Bush, let’s f---ing attack Iran you stupid c---s---er.
Now, with that 516K actual militay personnel in perspective, let's add in the toll to the people in the lives around these walking wounded.
I think it is a low estimate to say that each of these Vets with hidden illness' has only five people in their lives that this will have a negative impact on. Spouses or partners, children, other family, friends etc and 5 is very low to use. Let's give the military brass a break though (I don't know why).
516K military with TBI, PTSD & mental illness, each with only 5 in their lives impacted by their illness' comes to 2,580,000 people!!
Sure Bush, let’s f---ing attack Iran you stupid c---s---er.
Some facts to put this 2,580,000 into perspective
There are 17 of the 50 United States of America with a total population of less than 2,580,000. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/...
In our entire nation there are 2,320,359 people incarcerated in state, federal and local prisons/jails. Less than Vets who have TBI, PTSD and other mental illness' from Iraq and the people affected by it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
2,580,000 is about the same as or more than each of these nations entire population; Jamaica, Kuwait, Latvia, Macedonia, Mongolia & Namibia.
http://www.infoplease.com/...
Sure Bush, let’s f---ing attack Iran you stupid c---s---er.
How in the hell is the VA possibly going to handle this? I will tell you how, not very fucking well. I am lucky I live in Maine and my VA facility is not overcrowded and not the nightmare of most. I have a remarkable group of doctors for my TBI, mild bi-polar and physical injuries caused by my accident.
You know what the VA needs. Volunteers. If each one of us volunteered just 3 hours, one day a week, we could have an immense impact. Please consider doing this.
If you have a physical malady that will help you relate to amputees or the like, then if you prefer, work with those wounded vets.
If not, I would recommend asking to specifically work with Vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have mental health issues, family issues, a lack of visitors and/or diagnosis of TBI or PTSD.
All you need to have to be a great help, a good pair of ears and an empathetic soul. Just go talk to them. Let them know the American people appreciate their service enough to be inconveinced a little to take the time to come speak to them. Let them tell you what happened and what they feel. They can tell you what TBI and/or PTSD is like. How it affects them and their families. You can mostly just listen. Not only will you help them, I guarantee it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. You might save a marriage, you might help mend some broken families. Could you imagine the feeling of being a person who helped prevent the suicide of one of these tortured souls. One of Bush's throw aways.
I strongly urge you to read the links below which explain in more detail the variances in TBI. There are also specific links to military magazines and documents about the extreme extent of this condition in our Vets returning from combat. There is an article about proposed cuts to the government financing for The Center for the Study of TBI. Most of the articles below were written in the last two years. There is tons of stuff on the internet about this issue and the veterans who served our nation and served me and served you and yours. We never should have been in Iraq but these soldiers are brave and honorable and they did their duty as they pledged to due.
YOU MUST READ THE ITEM BELOW THESE LINKS. FOUND IT MOMENTS BEFORE WRAPPING UP THIS DIARY AS DONE. I HAD NO WHERE TO ADD IT BUT WHERE IT IS.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
http://www.iava.org/...
http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/
http://www.usatoday.com/...
http://content.nejm.org/...
http://www.usatoday.com/...
http://www4.army.mil/...
http://www.armytimes.com/...
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/...
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
House Addresses Traumatic Brain Injury, Week of July 23, 2007
Members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee met recently discuss ways to provide treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI), which is considered by many to be the signature injury of the war in Iraq. Among veterans and servicemembers from Iraq and Afghanistan treated at Walter Reed for injuries of any type, approximately 65 percent have TBI as a primary diagnosis or simultaneous injury. Medical doctors, neuropsychologists, researchers and family members attended the symposium to discuss the health care needs of our returning servicemembers. This symposium continues the series of roundtable discussions that the Committee will hold throughout the 110th Congress.
http://www.military.com/...
Literally one minute before finishing this diary, I went to close out the internet and saw one item I hadn't noticed before on one of my searchs. I opened it and looked at it and this is what I found. I am astounded, outraged and find this unbelieveable. I hope to God this is a typo.
65 PERCENT!, 65%!, more than 6 of evey ten! The ARMY TIMES article said between 10% and 20% and that meant 150,000 soldiers. This is more than three times the numbers ARMY TIMES stated and I used above. It was an epidemic with those numbers I used and presented above.
If it is three times higher, I don't know what the hell to call it! Genocide? Mass suicide? Human sacrifice? This meeting by the house was just a little over three months ago! Did anyone hear anything about it? I did not. Who the hell is on the House Veterans Affairs Committee? Who ever is on the committee is a coward and a traitor and a weasel. Any human being with a set of balls and any morals would have marched directly from this meeting to George fucking W's office and jumped up and down on his desk while screaming "65% of OUR soldiers will have brain injuries, 65%, 65%, you God damn moron"!!
If this is right, we are sending our troops into Iraq and Afghanistan knowing that 65% will come home with a brain injury! I am at a loss for any more words. I almost wish I hadn't found this. I was one minute from wrapping this diary up and accidently stumbled on this.