Veteran rebuilds life after brain injury

Veteran rebuilds life after brain injury

By Lindsay Wise - Houston Chronicle
Posted : Monday Jun 22, 2009 9:53:03 EDT

HOUSTON — Mark DeJaico hit rock bottom late last year at a Houston nightclub.

He had just worked up the nerve to chat with a cute girl when her friend interrupted them.

“She said: ‘What are you doing, talking to him? He’s kinda slow,’ ” DeJaico remembered. “Like I couldn’t even hear her.”

The 30-year-old Army veteran had developed a severe stutter after being knocked unconscious during a mortar attack in Afghanistan in 2006. Doctors diagnosed him with traumatic brain injury and generalized anxiety disorder.

Just getting his own name out of his mouth could take DeJaico half a minute. Every time he tried to talk, his heart thudded in his chest and his hands shook as his throat closed tight around the words. Sometimes, he just gave up and wrote things down.

For a military communications specialist who describes himself as talkative and happy-go-lucky, the impediment was devastating. “That’s why I didn’t talk to anybody anymore,” DeJaico said. “Especially civilians.”

A Rand Corp. study published last year estimated that out of 1.6 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury during deployment. The Defense Department reported in March that the number with brain injuries could be as high as 360,000, based on health screening programs that show 10 percent to 20 percent of returning troops experienced at least a mild concussion, most often caused by roadside bombs. Of those, 45,000 to 90,000 veterans have persistent symptoms that require specialized care, according to the Pentagon.

Earlier this year, DeJaico graduated from Project Victory, a collaborative between Houston’s TIRR Foundation and TIRR Memorial Hermann, which helps service members recover from traumatic brain injury.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_veteran_braininjury_061909w/