Doctors are increasingly concerned with brain injuries from explosions, such as those from roadside bombs used in Iraq. Even if no shrapnel from the blast touches a person's head, shock waves moving through the air can severely injure the brain. Because of improved armor, soldiers are surviving explosions that otherwise would cause serious injuries to their lungs, hearts, and other vital organs. In past wars, such injuries probably masked traumatic brain injuries. In Western PA, politicians and doctors are teaming up to tackle the signature injury of the Iraq war. Traumatic brain injuries can result in lifelong mental problems, speech impairments, memory loss and sometimes death.
About 65 percent of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington have traumatic brain injuries. Legislation has been introduced to address traumatic brain injuries in soldiers. Between January 2003 and May 2007, 2,414 veterans of service in Iraq and Afghanistan were treated for traumatic brain injuries at the federally funded Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center's nine medical centers. More than 26,800 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq and 1,400 in Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense.
Nearly 2 million Americans suffer a form of traumatic brain injury every year. About 50,000 people with traumatic brain injury die.
The Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Act was introduced in April that was incorporated into an expanded measure the House passed in May. The legislation awaits action in the Senate. If passed, the bill would authorize more than $80 million to establish centers across the nation for traumatic brain injury research and treatment. Four Veterans Affairs sites would be picked to house to long-term care programs for treating post-traumatic brain injuries. Veterans would be screened and a registry would be established.
Screening is especially important because milder brain injuries and their subtle symptoms which include irritability, difficulty sleeping, and problems concentrating could otherwise go unnoticed.
Repeated mild brain injuries can cause cumulative damage, so proper screening could help prevent soldiers who have suffered one traumatic brain injury from being put in situations where they are at high risk for suffering another.
The demand for better treatment and care for soldiers with traumatic brain injury will result in better care for the estimated 9 million Americans who suffer from traumatic brain injury.
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