|
click above for details
click for details
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
DoD TRIES TO PUT FAVORABLE "SPIN" ON
TRAUMATIC
BRAIN INJURY FIGURES -- Reacting to story in
USA Today,
Pentagon says most soldiers with brain injuries
heal.
When USA Today published a story about DoD
figures that show over 350,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets may have brain
injuries, officials must not have liked all the notoriety.
So, the Pentagon jumped into the fray with their
own story headlined: Most Soldiers With Brain Injury Heal,
Medical Official Says.
These stories don't exactly contradict each
other, but it's interesting to note the Pentagon "spin" on brain
injuries... most of them heal.
While that may be, the real problem is
identifying the troops who have the brain injuries. As older vets
know, they may have symptoms of "something" for years before doctors
discover there was a brain injury.
So, the real issue is proper screening to
determine who has the injuries... and then getting them proper treatment.
We have the two stories... first from USA
Today and then from DoD.
For more about traumatic brain injury, use the VA
Watchdog search engine... click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sesse
arch.php?q=traumatic+brain&op=ph
First story here...
http://www.usatoday.com
/news/military/2009-03-04-braininjuries_N.htm
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
Share story/email link.
-------------------------
360,000 veterans may
have brain injuries
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Pentagon
officials estimated for the first time Wednesday that up to 360,000 Iraq
and Afghanistan veterans may have suffered brain injuries. Among them are
45,000 to 90,000 veterans whose symptoms persist and warrant specialized
care.
Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton provided the estimate during a news
conference about March as Brain Injury Awareness Month. She heads the
Pentagon's Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic
Brain Injury.
Pentagon officials have been reluctant to estimate the number of potential
brain-injury casualties among the 1.8 million troops who have served in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sutton based her estimate upon military health-screening programs showing
that 10% to 20% of returning troops have suffered at least a mild
concussion. Among them are 3% to 5% with persistent symptoms that require
specialists such as an ophthalmologist to deal with vision problems.
Sutton's estimate is similar to a RAND Corp. study last year that said
320,000 may have suffered a brain injury. Following direction from
Congress, the U.S. military began to screen all troops returning from the
war zones for brain injury last year.
Persistent symptoms can range from headaches and sleep disorders to
memory, balance and vision difficulties, said Lt. Col. Lynne Lowe, the
Army's program manager for traumatic brain injury.
Research suggests the vast majority of these troops recover, said James
Kelly, director of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a Pentagon
treatment center for traumatic brain injury and psychological health.
Kelly said scientists are trying to understand the severity and extent of
brain injury caused by exposure to a blast. Many of the wounded in Iraq
and Afghanistan were hurt by roadside bombs.
The science is so new that it remains unclear whether symptoms attributed
to brain injury are actually the result of post-traumatic stress disorder
caused by the same combat incident — a roadside bomb blast, for example —
that caused the brain injury, Lowe said.
click for more information -- a disabled veteran
owned business
The Pentagon's official figure for U.S. military war casualties of all
kinds in Iraq and Afghanistan is about 33,000.
Sutton said at least 9,100 troops have been diagnosed with brain injuries
since the war began.
The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that it has treated about 8,000
former servicemembers for brain injury after their return from Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The rest of those who may require care have problems that can be treated
by a family physician — issues such as headaches and sleep disorders,
Kelly said. "It's not unusually complicated care."
Hotline phone numbers available for troops concerned about symptoms that
might be related to a brain injury are, at the Centers of Excellence,
866-966-1020; and at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center,
800-870-9244.
-------------------------
Second story here...
http://www.defenseli
nk.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53351
Story below:
-------------------------
Most Soldiers With Brain Injury Heal, Medical
Official Says
By C. Todd Lopez
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON – Mild traumatic brain injury, also known as a
concussion, affects from 10 to 20 percent of servicemembers returning from
combat deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan.
During a roundtable discussion at the Pentagon yesterday as part of "Brain
Injury Awareness Month," Army Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Loree K. Sutton, director
of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and
Traumatic Brain Injury, said more than 90 percent of servicemembers with
TBI have concussions and recover quickly.
"I can't stress this enough," Sutton said. "The vast majority of people
with TBI will get better. Certainly, the moderate or more severe cases
will take longer to recover, but it is also important to recognize this is
not an individual concern alone. That's where family comes in, the unit
comes in, and the community comes in."
 Mild
TBI -- concussions -- are the result of a blow to the head, and can result
in disorientation, headaches, dizziness, balance difficulties, ringing in
the ears, blurred vision and memory gaps. The Army and other services
screen for concussions with a tool called the Military Acute Concussion
Evaluation. The tool, recently supported by the Institutes of Medicine,
was first released in August 2006.
The military also uses the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric,
or ANAM, to set baselines for servicemembers before deployment. The tool
establishes a baseline for a soldier's reaction time, short-term memory
and other cognitive skills, and providers can use the results as another
critical piece of information for the evaluation and management of injured
servicemembers, Sutton said.
"We've directed a lot of research and time and energy to identifying the
knowledge gaps for the entire range of traumatic brain injury, which spans
from concussion, or mTBI, all the way through to severe TBI," Sutton said.
"The good news is that for 80 to 85 percent of people that experience TBI,
it is a concussion, and most folks will recover quickly -- particularly if
they pay attention early on and get the rest they need. Early intervention
is important."
The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, established after the first
Gulf War, reports that some 33 percent of patients who needed medical
evaluation for battle-related injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
here in 2008 had TBI. Cumulatively, the center’s sites have seen more than
9,000 patients who suffer from TBI. Sutton said it is important for
soldiers who think they may have suffered an injury that might lead to TBI
to self-report to ensure the best possible recovery.
"Our troops are very motivated and want to stay in the fight," she said.
"But our message is if you hurt your arm or you hurt your leg, you'd get
it taken care of. Well the same thing applies to one's brain. So asking
for help is an act of courage and strength, and we have a great system set
up both within [the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments] and in
partnership with our civilian colleagues."
In June, Defense Department officials broke ground on the National
Intrepid Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain
Injury at Bethseda, Md. The $70-million, 75,000-square-foot facility will
be a state-of-the-art treatment and rehabilitation center.
"The National Intrepid Center of Excellence will become the hub of our
national and global network, so we can draw on the expertise around the
country and around the world, particularly on those individuals that are
not getting better as we hoped they would," Sutton said.
(C. Todd Lopez works for Army News Service.)
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
-------------------------
-------------------------
Please post your comments below on Google
Friend Connect. You must sign in. For larger view and work
area, click blue "expand" button in upper right corner of comment box.
-------------------------
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home
Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
