Tampa VA Unveils Addition To Center For Traumatic War Injuries

Tampa VA Unveils Addition To Center For Traumatic War Injuries
By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2008

TAMPA - Wounded troops and Veterans Administration officials gathered at Tampa's VA hospital today to see the latest addition to its unit for men and women with traumatic injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new building contains apartments for injured troops who no longer need to be hospitalized but aren't ready to live on their own.

It's the first facility of its kind in the VA system, said Steven Scott, director of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital.

"This is a great occasion, everybody. We should all be proud," said Scott, who doubles as Haley's chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation services.
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Veterans' Mental Health by the Numbers

Center for American Progress

Veterans' Mental Health by the Numbers

April 7, 2008

The Pentagon’s decision last year to extend tours in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 months from 12 months in order to support the Bush administration’s ill-conceived surge has resulted in the longest Army combat tours since World War II. Moreover, dwell time—time in-between deployments—has been shortened to 12 months as many soldiers are on their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty in either theatre. As a result, soldiers are being pushed beyond their physical and mental breaking points.

The full psychological effect of the war is impossible to estimate, as debilitating conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder can take years to appear and last a lifetime. Warning signs, however, are already appearing that indicate soldiers and Marines returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan face lasting psychological effects. A review of the problems facing our brave men and women in uniform indicates that not enough is being done to help them.

Overall Mental Health
30 to 40: The percentage of Iraq veterans who will face a serious psychological wound, including depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Multiple tours and inadequate time between deployments increase rates of combat stress by 50 percent.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
One in five: Number of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who show signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nearly 20,000: The increase in the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder from the Department of Veterans Affairs in the 12 months ending June 30, 2007, VA records show. This represents a nearly 70 percent jump since June 30, 2006.

30 percent: The percentage of troops returning from war zones who experience some level of PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Substance Abuse
40,000: The number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have been treated at a VA hospital for substance abuse.

Families
20 percent: The number of married troops in Iraq who say they are planning a divorce.
42 percent: Number of returning soldiers and Marines who said they felt like “a guest in their own home, ” according to a 2007 poll. The study also found a link between family problems and PTSD, with the two reinforcing each other in a vicious spiral.

Traumatic Brain Injury
150,000 to 300,000: The number of veterans who have suffered a TBI during the war.
30 percent: The percentage of soldiers admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center who have suffered TBI.

Suicide
121: Number of Army suicides in 2007, which amounts to a jump of more than 20 percent over 2006.

2,100: The number of attempted suicides and self-injuries in 2007, as reported by the Army. There were less than 1,500 in 2006 and less than 500 in 2002.

55 percent: The percentage of suicide cases in 2006 that involved soldiers who were serving or had served at some point over the preceding five years in Iraq or Afghanistan.

A Strained System
Over 100,000: The number of mental health diagnoses the VA has already given to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, or 38 percent of new veterans who visited the VA for any reason.
150 percent: The percentageincrease in VA disability pay for PTSD among veterans between 1999 and 2004—or $4.2 billion.

200:1: The ratio that patients outnumber primary care managers in some major military facilities. Until recently, the ratio was 1200:1.

22 percent: The percentage decrease of licensed psychologists in the military in recent years.
We have no greater duty than to ensure that the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines who volunteer to defend our country receive not only the best equipment and medical care we can provide, but are supported with programs and policies that improve their quality of life—before, during, and after deployments.

Together with the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense, the Congress must do more to repair our social compact with our troops. This includes increasing funding for psychological health care in the military, increasing awareness of these problems, and preparing for long-term care of our returning troops in the years ahead.
For more on this issue, please see:
Quality of Life in the Military
How to Redeploy: Implementing a Responsible Drawdown of U.S. Forces from Iraq
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http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/04/veterans_mental_health.html

Bay Area Iraq War Vets Face Possible Blindness

Bay Area Iraq War Vets Face Possible Blindness

KNTV-TV
updated 9:16 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 27, 2008
Soldiers coming back from the war in Iraq are being treated for many combat-related injuries. But doctors at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto found something they haven't seen before. NBC11's Damian Trujillo investigates why soldiers, with no obvious signs of trauma, are at risk of going blind. It's hard for Army Specialist Jason Kvasnak to remember every single explosion he survived in Iraq.

"We were in several IED (improvised explosive device) blasts throughout the tour," Kvasnak said.

But Kvasnak remember the one that left him with the injuries no one saw coming.


"It was just massive concussive force and it thrust you forward, or whatever. I just felt really dazed afterwards and ringing in the ears and I couldn't really see straight," Kvasnak said.

Kvasnak hasn't been able to see straight since that blast. He sees double, has sensitivity to light and the headaches he gets from trying to read or watch TV are so bad that he sometimes passes out.

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Palo Alto are seeing more and more troops returning from Iraq with vision problems from exposure to roadside bombs.

"In this war, blast injuries have become the signature injuries. These can cause damage to the eye. They can also cause damage to the visual system and the visual processing centers in the brain," VA research psychologist Gregory Goodrich said.

Many soldiers don't even realize something's wrong with them. They're returning home with only half their visual field, not knowing that they're missing their entire left field of perception.

Without treatment, blast injuries like Kvasnak's can lead to long-term problems, even blindness

"The things that we're finding are damage to the soft tissue in the eye that can lead to glaucoma at any time in their life. There is a life-long risk, and bear in mind that these people are very young. In general, the median age so far is 28 years old some are as young as 19 when they are injured so that is a long lifetime," VA ophthalmologist Glenn Cockerham said.

The traumatic injury leads to a lifetime of treatment that starts with intense rehabilitation.

A driving simulator like the one at the VA in Palo Alto is an important tool in getting injured soldiers back on the road to recovery.

Soldiers are required to wear protective eye gear but since the vision loss is a result of a closed head injury, goggles and glasses aren't enough to protect the eyes from IED blasts.

Doctors encourage all Iraq veterans to have their eyes checked since many of the symptoms could take years to show up and by then, it could be too late.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23817493/