Amputations Reach A Wartime High

The X2 prosthetic allows amputees to navigate stairs with a normal gait. Army Medical Command

DoD Says Amputations Reached Wartime High -- Army Times

The number of U.S. troops who lost limbs reached a wartime high in 2011, according to data from the Defense Department, but along with the spike came advances in medicine and technology that have enabled troops with devastating wounds to survive and, in some cases, return to duty.

In 2011, 240 deployed troops had to have at least an arm or a leg amputated, compared with 205 in 2007, the height of the surge in Iraq, according to data published by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

The increase in 2011 coincides with the surge of troops in Afghanistan, who often dismount on foot patrols in the country’s austere and rugged terrain.

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My Comment: My father once mentioned to me that during the Second World War, his biggest fear was losing a limb/eye sight/etc.. I cannot even imagine what these soldiers must go through .... we can only make sure that the best care be given to those soldiers who have sacrificed so much.

Treating Concussions In War Zones

ROAD WARRIORS - U.S. Air Force Senior Airman John Fitzgerald, left, patrols a road with many known improvised explosive devices during an operation in the Alingar district in Afghanistan's Laghman province, Aug. 21, 2011. Fitzgerald is a medic assigned to the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane

Treatment for Concussions in War Zones -- At War/New York Times

Commander Earl Frantz is the officer in charge of the Concussion Restoration Care Center at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, the first multidisciplinary concussion rehabilitation clinic set up in a war zone.



CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The idea of treating warriors for concussion during the acute phase in the war zone is a new concept.



During the first nine years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, if a service member was not bleeding or visibly broken on the battlefield, he shook off any cobwebs in his head from an attack and returned to the fight.



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My Comment: The part of this post that caught my eye was the following ....



.... Concussion, often called mild traumatic brain injury, is now the most common battlefield injury, affecting more than 300,000 service members since 2001.



300,000 .... that's a lot of injuries and "close calls".

Saving Troops' Lives With A Flying Hospital

An aeromedical evacuation crew and military members load a patient onto a C-17 Globemaster III on its way to the United States to take patients to their next level of care Jan. 25 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. Jonathan Stock)

Trying To Save Troops' Lives With Flying Hospital -- New York Times

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) — A light rain fell on a runway in the early morning darkness as vans pulled up to what one officer calls the "Cadillac" of medical evacuation aircraft.

Dozens of service members began loading wounded comrades onto a huge C-17 military transport plane in a carefully choreographed process. As many as eight people carry a single patient, who often is connected to more than 100 pounds of advanced medical equipment.

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My Comment: Only the best for our best.

A Slideshow On America's War Against STD

The Enemy in Your Pants -- Mother Jones

The military’s decades-long war against STDs.

Army medical records dating back to the Revolutionary War show significant soldier losses due to venereal diseases. In a two-year period during the Civil War, the Union Army documented 100,000 cases of gonorrhea. During World War I, the Army lost 7 million person-days and discharged more than 10,000 men because they were ailing from STDs. Once Penicillin kicked in in the mid-1940s, such infections were treatable. But as a matter of national security, the military started distributing condoms and aggressively marketing prophylactics to the troops in the early 20th century.

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My Comment: LOL Just say no.

Hat Tip: Goodshit

U.S. Soldier 'Re-Grows Leg' After Pioneering Medical Research

Decellularized Hearts A heart is washed of its cells, leaving behind only the structural skeleton that gives the tissue its shape. Courtesy of University of Minnesota. Popular Science

U.S. Soldier 'Re-Grows Leg' After Pioneering Injection Of Pig Bladder Hormone -- The Daily Mail

A U.S.soldier who had most of his leg muscle blown off in Afghanistan has become the first to see it grow back in a pioneering experimental operation.

Marine Isaias Hernandez lost 70 per cent of his right thigh muscles when an enemy mortar exploded as he tried to carry out repairs to a truck in Afghanistan.

With such severe muscle damage Hernandez would ordinarily have had his leg amputated.

But a re-think in the way soldiers are treated led to the wounded warrior being injected with a growth promoting substance extracted from pig bladders.

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Update: Radical therapy sees injured US soldier regrow muscle -- The Australian

My Comment: Truly incredible.

A Medical Miracle And A Story Of Courage

Army Private Channing Moss was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan. (U.S. Army Photo, Courtesy Channing Moss)

Unexploded Bomb in Soldier's Body: Could Docs Save Him? -- ABC News

Thursday, March 16, 2006, was a beautiful sunny day in Paktika Province, eastern Afghanistan. It borders a lawless region of Pakistan that is home to some al Qaeda and Taliban forces. Snow in the mountain passes along the border had melted giving them access again to Afghanistan where they came looking for American soldiers. They soon found them.

At dawn, the 10th Mountain Division's Alpha Company headed out on a mission. Lt. Billy Mariani, the unit commander, noticed something about his troops.

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My Comment: Soldiers helping their fellow soldier under the most extreme situations.... this is what makes the U.S. military incredibly unique in today's world. A true Band of Brothers story.

Why Is The US Navy Not Deploying It's Hospital Ships Outside Of Libya?

NIGHT COMFORT - The hospital ship USNS Comfort sits off the coast of Kingston, Jamaica, April 17, 2011, to support Continuing Promise, a humanitarian mission to countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brian A. Goyak

WNU Editor: With the conflict in Libya becoming more and more bloodier, especially in cities under siege like Misurata, I have trouble understanding why the U.S. Navy has not positioned either the USNS Mercy or the USNS Comfort into this war zone. The casualties are approaching numbers into the thousands .... and if there is ever a need for such a hospital ship .... it is certainly now.

Is it possible that politics is involved? That positioning such a hospital ship in this war zone will also entail the positioning of a heavy US Navy presence to not only protect this ship .... but to also have the resources necessary to ferry the casualties from cities like Misurata .... a scenario that this White House does not want to contemplate right now.

Either way .... I find it an incredible lost opportunity for the US to show to the Arab world (and everyone else) what U.S. military medical assistance can do in such a badly needed situation.

An Investigative Series On Wounded Soldiers

Wounded U.S. Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are moved for evacuation in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, after suffering shrapnel wounds to their eyes and foreheads in a fire fight with Islamic militants. Xinhuanet

Investigative Series on Wounded Warriors (Updated)-- Small Wars Journal

SWJ friend, Carl Prine, recently published an investigative series on wounded warriors for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Thousands of sick and wounded soldiers within the Army's Warrior Transition program aren't receiving psychological care they need and are being discharged into communities ill-prepared to help them. A nine-month investigation by the Tribune-Review, buttressed by documents passed to the newspaper by soldiers and the Pentagon's Office of Wounded Warrior Care & Transition Policy in Alexandria, Va., reveal an Army reeling from an epidemic of mental and behavioral health problems after nearly a decade of constant combat overseas.

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My Comment: An excellent series from the Small Wars Journal. Read it all.

Women Treat Their War Scars Differently Than Their Male Counterparts

Heroine: Hannah Campbell lost her left after a bomb attack in Iraq in 2007 - and she is relieved that people are accepting of her prosthetic limbs

Men Wear Their War Wounds With Pride, It's Different For Us Women -- The Daily Mail

The awesome courage of the first mother to lose a limb serving in Iraq.

As Hannah Campbell, 26, and her daughter Milly, five, wandered around Winchester, passers-by couldn’t have realised how poignant this day out was for the pair.

A year ago, Hannah couldn’t imagine having a day out with her daughter after she was caught in a mortar attack while on sentry duty in Basra, Iraq, in 2007.

Her injuries were such that, despite ten operations to try to save her foot, she had her left leg amputated just below the knee last May.

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My Comment: I cannot say that I am surprised. Men and women are different in more ways than one.

A Look At Today's "MASH" Units

Lt. Gen. (Dr.) James G. Roudebush, Air Force surgeon general, chats with a wounded Soldier returning from overseas during a visit to Malcolm Grow Medical Center's Aeromedical Staging Flight at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., June 26. The Soldier was secured to the litter to ensure no further injury during transport on the C-17 Globemaster III, which was flown by a crew from the Mississippi Air National Guard's 172nd Airlift Wing. With General Roudebush was Dr. S. Ward Casscells, the new assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Jeff Andrejcik)

U.S. Strategy For Treating Troops Wounded In Afghanistan, Iraq: Keep Them Moving -- Washington Post

AT BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN Only the head and feet of Sgt. Diego Solorzano are visible outside his camouflage blanket and below the skyline of medical devices keeping him alive

Clamped to his litter is an over-the-legs shelf. On it are three vacuum canisters putting gentle suction on wounds in Solorzano's thighs and abdomen, two IV pumps delivering drugs to his veins, a ventilator breathing for him, and a monitor recording his pulse, EKG rhythm and blood pressure.

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My Comment: For those who are interested in medical issues and stories, this is a fascinating read.

Combat Medic Of The Future?

RESCUE ROBOT - An all-terrain, search-and-rescue humanoid robot simulates how a soldier or item up to 500 pounds can be lifted and carried, and how it can grasp fragile objects without damaging them at Fort Detrick, Md., Nov. 22, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Barb Ruppert

New Medical Tests Can Detect The Degree Of Brain Trauma In Wounded Soldiers

Navy Capt. Michael Wagner, the Traumatic Brain Injury director at a military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, wraps up his examination of a soldier who was exposed to a bomb blast during combat operations. Although medical personnel currently lack a foolproof method of diagnosing concussions, the Army has been working on developing a blood test that can accurately detect them. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Army Finds Simple Blood Test To Identify Mild Brain Trauma -- USA Today

FREDERICK, Md. — The Army says it has discovered a simple blood test that can diagnose mild traumatic brain damage or concussion, a hard-to-detect injury that can affect young athletes, infants with "shaken baby syndrome" and combat troops.

"This is huge," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff.

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My Comment: This is huge .... and will help scores of wounded veterans.

Iraq Veteran Will Be First to Get Adult Stem Cell Treatment For Spinal Cord Injury In FDA Trial

Studying Stem Cells Dr. Gabriel Lasala and Dr. Jose Minguell examine cells in TCA Cellular Therapy's lab. Business Wire

From Popular Science:

Last week, the FDA gave biotech firm Geron the green light to proceed with clinical trials of an embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal cord injuries. But while we wait on promising embryonic stem cell research to clear political and regulatory hurdles, adult stem cell research is trucking right along. Yesterday it was announced that Iraq War veteran and Marine Matt Cole, paralyzed from the chest down since a 2005 insurgent attack in Iraq, has enrolled as the first patient in the first FDA clinical trial of adult stem cells used to treat spinal cord injuries.

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My Comment: Thousands of soldiers have been impacted by spinal injuries .... faster please.

First Batch Of DARPA's Synthetic Blood Delivered To FDA, Could Be On Battlefields Soon

Blood on the Battlefield Trauma wards in combat zones often run short of blood necessary for transfusions. A DARPA program may soon yield vast amounts of synthetic, universally accepted blood that will provide medics with a perpetual supply.

From Popular Science:

Perhaps ranking behind only bullets and water, blood is one of those things you really don't want to run out of on the battlefield. But better battlefield medicine -- as well as some of the more malicious combat techniques employed by insurgent guerrilla fighters -- mean more soldiers are surviving their injuries, and that puts military blood banks in a bind. But a DARPA program launched in 2008 is coming to fruition, potentially providing medics an endless stream of universally accepted O-negative blood through a process known as blood pharming.

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My Comment: Faster please.

New Technologies To Save Lives On The Battlefield Being Developed

A Green Lantern to Heal Wounds A pink dye zapped with green light can seal a wound, a potentially fast and safe method for healing battlefield injuries. Technology Review

Air Force Tests Method For Using Light To Heal Battlefield Injuries -- Popular Science

In the near future, wounds may be treated with a flash of light. A process called photochemical tissue bonding can replace conventional stitches, staples and glues in repairing skin wounds and even reconnecting nerves and blood vessels.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, working with funds from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, recently completed a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of light bonding compared to traditional stitches. The study involved patients who had skin lesions removed and needed stitches.

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My Comment: The impact that this tech will have on the battlefield .... especially for patients with trauma .... will be significant. This is research that will save lives .... both in the military and non-military situations.

Are U.S. Troops Over-Medicated?

US Military Concerned About 'Over-Medication' Of Troops -- Space War

The US Army's surgeon general on Monday expressed concern about "over-medication" of soldiers returning from combat, saying the military is closely tracking how drugs are prescribed to troops.

The top medical officer in the army, Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, said the increasing use of prescription drugs
for soldiers recovering from combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan reflected a wider trend in the country to treat pain primarily through medication.

But he told reporters: "I can tell you that we are concerned about over-medication."

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My Comment: Welcome to the modern era of treating mental illness and disorders with medication and cocktails of pharmaceuticals.

Will there be complications .... duh!!!

We Are Failing In The Medical Care Of Our Soldiers

“It is just a dark place. Being in the W.T.U. is worse than being in Iraq.” MICHAEL CRAWFORD, an Army specialist who was a sniper in Iraq, above.

In Army’s Trauma Care Units, Feeling Warehoused -- New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS — A year ago, Specialist Michael Crawford wanted nothing more than to get into Fort Carson’s Warrior Transition Battalion, a special unit created to provide closely managed care for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma.

A strapping Army sniper who once brimmed with confidence, he had returned emotionally broken from Iraq, where he suffered two concussions from roadside bombs and watched several platoon mates burn to death. The transition unit at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs, seemed the surest way to keep suicidal thoughts at bay, his mother thought.

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My Comment: If the government cannot take care of it's own soldiers, how in hell are they going to take care of all Americans in health care?

Tongue Device Helps Blind Soldier 'See'

Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg can read words, identify shapes and walk around unaided thanks to the BrainPort device. PA

From The Independent:

A soldier blinded by a grenade in Iraq today described how his life has been transformed by ground-breaking technology that enables him to "see" with his tongue.

Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, 24, from Walton, Liverpool, can read words, identify shapes and walk around unaided thanks to the BrainPort device, despite being totally blind.

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My Comment: This is incredible technology. Innovations have always developed from war .... I guess this is one of them.

DARPA Seeks Prosthetics Directly Controllable Through Brain Implants

Military Amputees Brian Frasure, a clinical prosthetist and world-class athlete, speaks to the audience on the last day of the Military Amputees Advances Skills Training workshop at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Sgt. Sara Wood/U.S. Army

From Popular Science:

Artificial limbs have advanced quite a bit since the days of the pirate peg leg, but not nearly enough for DARPA. The Pentagon agency has kicked off a new phase of its "Revolutionizing Prosthetics" program that sets the hefty goal of creating a fully-functional human limb directly controlled by the brain within five years, according to Wired's Danger Room.

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New Battlefield Drug May Save Soldiers Dying From Blood Loss

Battlefield Blood Loss Combat medics work through the "blood lab" at the Department of Combat Medic Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. U.S. Army

From Popular Science:

People who suffer massive blood loss automatically go into shock as a stopgap measure, but can eventually die if their bodies stay in shock for too long. Now a drug used to treat epilepsy could reverse all that and boost survival rates for horrifically injured people, especially wounded soldiers far from any extra blood supplies. New Scientist reports on a new study of the drug that involved porkers.

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My Comment: Blood loss and the accompanying shock is what kills people in trauma situations. Any advancement in this filed of medicine will be a godsend not only for the soldiers in the battlefield, but also to everyone else in society.