Nbadan
03-05-2005, 06:19 AM
The wounded veterans in Iraq have started to make their way back home and rumors are that many of our boys have suffered such severe brain trauma that TBI, or traumatic brain injury will be to the Iraq war what agent orange was to Vietnam...
A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It's a type of injury some military doctors say has become the signature wound of the Iraq (news - web sites) war.
Known as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the wound is of the sort that many soldiers in previous wars never lived long enough to suffer. The explosions often cause brain damage similar to "shaken-baby syndrome," says Warren Lux, a neurologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"You've got great body armor on, and you don't die," says Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed. "But there's a whole other set of possible consequences. It's sort of like when they started putting airbags in cars and started seeing all these orthopedic injuries."
...
From January 2003 to this January, 437 cases of TBI were diagnosed among wounded soldiers at the Army hospital, Lux says. Slightly more than half had permanent brain damage.....
The wound may come to characterize this war, much the way illnesses from Agent Orange typified the Vietnam War, doctors say. "The numbers make it a serious problem," Lux says.
Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/usatoday/20050304/ts_usatoday/keyiraqwoundbraintrauma)
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/05_john_adams1.jpg
"My head doesn't let me work."
Sgt. John Quincy Adams, 37, A Reservist with the Florida National Guard, 124th Infantry, was on patrol in Ramadi August 29, 2003 when a remote controlled bomb exploded under his humvee sending shrapnel into his head and body leaving him brain damaged. Photographed at Home and with his wife Summer, in Miramar, Florida, December 18, 2003
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http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/14_jeremy_feldbusch2.jpg
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/13_jeremy_feldbusch1.jpg
I knew about the Middle East as much as I needed"
Sgt. Jeremy Feldbusch, 24, a Ranger, 3rd Battalion, 75th Regiment was injured April 3, during an artillery attack near the Hadithah Dam. Feldbusch, who was first in his class of 228 Rangers, is now brain damaged and blind. He sees nothing but darkness. Photographed in his home in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, October 18, 2003.
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http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/11_randall_clunen1.jpg
I really have no idea what my mission was. We were trying to catch the people that were doing stuff.
PFC Randall Clunen, 19, 101st Airborne, stationed in Tal Afar, was pulling guard December 8, 2003 when a suicide bomber broke through security and exploded himself and his vehicle. Chunks of shrapnel ripped into Clunen's face. Photographed at home Salem, Ohio February 14, 2004.
Photo's courtesy of Digital Journalists (http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/purplehearts_intro.html)
A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It's a type of injury some military doctors say has become the signature wound of the Iraq (news - web sites) war.
Known as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the wound is of the sort that many soldiers in previous wars never lived long enough to suffer. The explosions often cause brain damage similar to "shaken-baby syndrome," says Warren Lux, a neurologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"You've got great body armor on, and you don't die," says Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed. "But there's a whole other set of possible consequences. It's sort of like when they started putting airbags in cars and started seeing all these orthopedic injuries."
...
From January 2003 to this January, 437 cases of TBI were diagnosed among wounded soldiers at the Army hospital, Lux says. Slightly more than half had permanent brain damage.....
The wound may come to characterize this war, much the way illnesses from Agent Orange typified the Vietnam War, doctors say. "The numbers make it a serious problem," Lux says.
Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/usatoday/20050304/ts_usatoday/keyiraqwoundbraintrauma)
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/05_john_adams1.jpg
"My head doesn't let me work."
Sgt. John Quincy Adams, 37, A Reservist with the Florida National Guard, 124th Infantry, was on patrol in Ramadi August 29, 2003 when a remote controlled bomb exploded under his humvee sending shrapnel into his head and body leaving him brain damaged. Photographed at Home and with his wife Summer, in Miramar, Florida, December 18, 2003
---
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/14_jeremy_feldbusch2.jpg
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/13_jeremy_feldbusch1.jpg
I knew about the Middle East as much as I needed"
Sgt. Jeremy Feldbusch, 24, a Ranger, 3rd Battalion, 75th Regiment was injured April 3, during an artillery attack near the Hadithah Dam. Feldbusch, who was first in his class of 228 Rangers, is now brain damaged and blind. He sees nothing but darkness. Photographed in his home in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, October 18, 2003.
--
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/images/purplehearts/11_randall_clunen1.jpg
I really have no idea what my mission was. We were trying to catch the people that were doing stuff.
PFC Randall Clunen, 19, 101st Airborne, stationed in Tal Afar, was pulling guard December 8, 2003 when a suicide bomber broke through security and exploded himself and his vehicle. Chunks of shrapnel ripped into Clunen's face. Photographed at home Salem, Ohio February 14, 2004.
Photo's courtesy of Digital Journalists (http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/purplehearts_intro.html)