Colonel: Pentagon delayed brain injury exams
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Mar 18, 2008 8:08:48 EDT
For more than two years, the Pentagon delayed screening troops returning from Iraq for mild brain injuries because officials feared veterans would blame vague ailments on the little-understood wound caused by exposure to bomb blasts, said the military’s director of medical assessments.
Air Force Col. Kenneth Cox said in an interview that the Pentagon wanted to avoid another controversy such as the so-called Gulf War syndrome. About 10,000 veterans blamed medical conditions from cancer to eczema on their service.
The Pentagon did not acknowledge the syndrome until Congress created a committee to study it in 1998.
For troops who think they may have a condition not designated as war-related, Cox said, often “they’re reacting to rumors, things that they’ve read about or heard about on the Internet or [from] their friends.”
That uncertainty, Cox said, means “some individuals will seek a diagnosis from provider to provider to provider.” It also makes treating veterans “much more difficult and much more costly,” he said.
Asked whether mild traumatic brain injury could turn into another Gulf War syndrome, Cox said, “It could.”
“That’s baloney,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force. “There was no need to delay this.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/gns_braininjuries_031808/
If you are not fully outraged over this then you are not even engaged in what is going on with our troops. This is beyond outrageous! It's inexcusable! How could anyone in their right mind think that finding out what a soldier was wounded by would be a bad thing to do because they may turn around and file a claim for being wounded? How many came home with TBI not knowing what was wrong with them and how many ended up being discharged for being wounded?
To answer your question - probably about 320,000 if reports are correct. Some, like my boyfriend, returned with a TBI and PTSD and waited years just trying to get counseling, let alone an MRI! In the meantime, he wondered what was wrong and why he felt the way he did and didn't have crap for balance and coordination. Still, the others in his vehicle that were hit haven't been checked. The numbers are pretty low for wounded... what about 30,000? They ought to add another 0 and be prepared to double the amount of vets in the VA rather than worrying about what if this round of soldiers realizes why they can't walk and chew gum or control their anger! I am outraged! We buy what turns out to be *nothing* from crooked contractors like KBR and yet can't take care of our goddamned soldiers when they get back to America for fear of us ripping them off with "Gulf War Syndrome" which was REAL!
ReplyDeleteI pray for your boyfriend and for all of them. This is not a new problem but it's gotten a whole lot larger since the days when men like my husband came home from Vietnam. Back then, we didn't have the net to get facts and figures. We had to go to the library and go thru years of reports. It was easy to bury stories back then. Now we can put them all together and it's very hard to bury anything very long. They will try to get away with whatever they can but with diligent people all over the nation checking on what we're told, they won't get away with it forever. Saying someone supports the troops is a lot harder when they actually want to.
ReplyDeleteWe're fighting for men and women just like your boyfriend because everyone working on this is just as outraged as you are.
Thanks for sharing your pain and I hope you will share your joy when he gets what he needs.