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Brain injuries common
for Iraq war vets
Thanks to body armor, thousands survive combat but face lengthy rehab
MSNBC, Wednesday, April 25, 2006
by Robert Bazell, Chief Science & Health Correspondent
PALO ALTO, Calif. - More injured troops
are surviving the war in Iraq than any other. But because of the
terrible force of IED explosions, more are surviving with brain injury
than in any other war.
Jason Poole was
on his third tour in Iraq when, as he puts it, he got “blasted.”
“I was
unconscious for two months,” Poole says. “And then I woke up in
Bethesda, in Washington, D.C.”/p>
That was at the Naval Medical Center. For
two years now Jason has been treated at the Palo Alto VA Hospital — one
of four specialized centers for rehabilitation of the huge numbers of
brain injured troops. The program uses intense, individualized physical
and mental rehabilitation. p>
Dr. Harriet
Zeiner is a clinical neuropsychologist in the hospital’s polytrauma
unit.
“Every hour of
the day something is done,” iner says, “And we're very careful to keep
within the envelope of what someone is capable of doing and pushing it
just a little.”
Angel Gomez is learning to walk again.p>
Frank Sandoval
is struggling to eat on his own./p>
Most of the
patients treated in the brain rehabilitation program go back in the
community, but about 10 percent wind up in nursing homes or other
long-term assisted living facilities on a permanent basis.p>
Jason Poole
already is living in his own apartment — even taking driving lessons in
a simulator and starting remedial reading classes at a community college
— as he continues the rehab.p>
“Motivation
isn't usually an issue,” Zeiner says, “Awareness that you're not gonna
be that same person is the problem.”
Poole says he
accepts that he will always have difficulty with speaking and memory.
“From the day I
was born I've always been happy,” Poole says. “I know I got blasted and
basically I came alive, you know, but basically it's just that I'm still
happy.”
Thousands of
other vets are facing the same challenge of accepting their new selves.
Wednesday on
"NBC Nightly News:" Robert Bazell reports on hidden head injuries. What
happens to troops who don't know immediately that they've suffered a
brain injury?
© 2006 MSNBC Interactive |
