“Since 2000, traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has been diagnosed in about 180,000 service members, the Pentagon says. But some advocates for patients say hundreds, if not thousands, more have suffered undiagnosed brain injuries. A Rand study in 2008 estimated the total number of service members with TBI to be about 320,000.”
The Washington Post has a sobering article on how devastating the TBI problem is in the military.
Seriously, 320,000 people is more than five Cheyenne, Wyomings. Or more than a third of the size of San Francisco.
I used to work with vets with TBI at the VA in Palo Alto, back when it was just becoming obvious how serious the problem was, and I saw up close how disastrous this condition is for both the vets and their families. I can’t even begin to explain the way this alters everyone’s life who is touched by it except to link to this conversation I had a couple years back with the wonderful Lance Corporal Jason Poole, who was hit with an IED near the Syrian border.
Why has TBI become such a problem? Advances in medical technology have increased the chance that people will survive explosions. But whenever people are hit by or are near a blast, there’s a risk that their brain, if not directly damaged by shrapnel, will literally shake around in their skull. This can cause severe brain injury, and , as the Post article says, it can “change who you are.”
This is one of the most terrible and underreported stories of these wars. If you want to help out, American Veterans with Brain Injuries is a nonprofit that aims to help these vets and their families.
