We tend to count war casualties mainly by the number of dead. Understandable - the dead are easy to count. Much more difficult to quantify is the damage done to the injured, maimed, psychologically scarred and brain damaged. Some recover enough to return to more or less normal lives but far too many don't. With advances in medical science and med-vac operations on the battle field, many more of the injured are now living with disabilities that a few years ago would have killed a majority of them. This is a double edged sword. While the number of lives being saved has increased, so has the number living with life altering debilitation of body and mind. The affected are mostly very young who must adjust to living the rest of their lives with missing body parts and diminished minds.
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 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."
Can you imagine President Bush on a visit with TBI victims, saying the following to the soldiers?
"As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself - not here at the hospital, but in combat with drugs and alcohol. I eventually won. All that partying gave me a little brain trauma. As a matter of fact, the psychiatrist asked if I needed counseling and detox when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, doc."
Sounds outrageous - like a tasteless SNL parody, right? Yet the truth is not far removed from the above imaginary presidential pep-talk. George W. Bush, with his tin ear and "Bubble Boy" existence, does not comprehend the tragedy of shattered lives. The following is an excerpt from a recent column by Maureen Dowd (can't link to the NYT page).
"..... Confined with his wife and mother-in-law at the Crawford ranch, he (George Bush) spent his Christmas vacation mountain-biking and clearing brush.
He left the ranch for a brief visit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he kidded in a way that again showed his jarring lack of empathy with the amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan:
"As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself - not here at the hospital, but in combat with a cedar. I eventually won. The cedar gave me a little scratch. As a matter of fact, the colonel asked if I needed first aid when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, colonel."
Comments