TBI and the Troops

A Shock Wave of Brain Injuries (TruthOut, April 8, 2007)
About 1,800 US troops are now suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) caused by penetrating wounds. But neurologists worry that hundreds of thousands more - at least 30 percent of the troops who've engaged in active combat for four months or longer in Iraq and Afghanistan - are at risk of potentially disabling neurological disorders from the blast waves of IEDs and mortars, all without suffering a scratch. For the first time, the US military is treating more head injuries than chest or abdominal wounds, and it is ill-equipped to do so.

With his war, Bush is creating a generation of young Americans who have debilitating brain injuries. Who's going to care for them? Who's going to make up for the salaries and wages they can't earn? Not Bush, that's for damn sure.

TBI Zeroed Out in Presidents Proposed FY 07 Budget(Justice For All, Wednesday, February 22nd 2006)

On Monday, President George W. Bush released a proposed budget for Federal Fiscal Year 2007.

Just like last year, The White House has again proposed the complete elimination of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal TBI Program, which provides grants to state agencies and protection and advocacy organizations to improve access to health and other services for individuals with TBI and their families.

Note that this proposal came some three years into Bush's War, and his oh so loud and insistent claims that he supports the troops - a war which, almost from its first days, has been remarkable for the number of traumatic brain injuries it has produced. Do you see a disconnect here?

There's clearly going to have to be an alliance between veterans organizations and disability organizations. There are so many veterans with permanent, debilitating disabilities coming out of this war; yet, neither the DOD nor the VA has sufficient resources to diagnose them correctly, let alone care for them. And, as we've seen, Bush has prioritized their neglect.

I don't pretend to have answers. I'm merely a person who has lived with the lingering, debilitating results of severe brain trauma for thirty-five years. As such, it both saddens and outrages me to see the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of young lives that have been blighted by this callus president in his insistence on prosecuting an unjust and unjustifiable war.

Links
Sen. Clinton Announces Initiative to Improve Detection, Treatment of TBI, March 29, 2007


For Wars Gravely Injured, Challenge to Find Care, March 14th 2007

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