US Soldier Who Lost All Limbs Undergoes Successful Double-Arm Transplant

Iraq Vet Undergoes Successful Double-Arm Transplant -- CNN

(CNN) -- A U.S. Army infantryman who lost all four limbs in a 2009 roadside explosion in Iraq has undergone radical transplant surgery that may help him regain use of his arms.

Last month, the 26-year-old infantryman had successful surgery -- a rare double arm transplant -- at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

"It feels amazing," Marrocco told reporters Wednesday. "It is something that I was waiting for for a long time, and now that it happened, I don't know what to say, because it is such a big thing for my life."

The last thing Marrocco remembers before being hit by an explosion in 2009 was that he was driving an armored vehicle.

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More News On An Iraq Vet undergoing A Successful Double-Arm Transplant

Johns Hopkins Hospital performs double arm transplant on Army soldier -- Washington Post
Soldier who lost 4 limbs has double-arm transplant -- AP
US soldier who lost all limbs gets new arms -- BBC
Quadruple amputee vet says new arms feel "amazing" -- CBS
Double-arm transplant soldier 'getting a second chance' -- NBC
Soldier with new arms determined to be independent -- Wall Street Journal
Transplant patient says new arms feel like his own -- Washington Post
Former US soldier Brendan Marrocco gets double arm transplant -- The Australian

My Comment: It is amazing on what science is capable of doing right now.

True Grit

Triple Amputee Veteran Completes Grueling 10.5 Mile Endurance Race Called The Beast Over Five-Hours To Honor Fallen U.S. Soldiers -- Daily Mail

* Completed the circuit with 75 obstacles over the weekend
* As part of an eight man team raising awareness for injured and deceased U.S. servicemen and women

Covered in mud, five hours after starting, triple amputee Corporal Todd Love charges to the finish line after competing over ten miles of rugged terrain across 75 obstacles in an event called The Beast.

Having lost both his legs and an arm in Afghanistan in 2010, this weekend Love took to Leesburg, Virginia, in an extreme endurance test called The Spartan Race with his eight-man other comrades of Team X.T.R.E.M.E.

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My Comment: I am in awe.

Is Caring For The US Military's Traumatized Soldiers Broken?

Some 20 percent of US troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some experts in the field say that they are not getting the kind of psychological care they need when in the war zone. Here, US Marines carry a wounded comrade to a medevac helicopter in Afghanistan last December. AFP

Caring For The US Military's Traumatized Soldiers -- Spiegel Online

Once again, disturbing images from Afghanistan -- this time showing US soldiers posing with body parts of slain enemy fighters -- have surfaced. Are the perpetrators psychologically ill or has there been an increase in the number of violence-prone recruits finding their way into the American military?

Janice Haaken specializes in people with mental challenges. She's studied them at hospitals, in refugee camps and in prisons. A professor at Portland State University in Oregon, she has carried out research for 35 years on ways for therapists to help the mentally ill.

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My Comment: A disturbing report .... read it all.

From A Decade Of War, An Endless Struggle For The Severely Wounded

Beyond The Battlefield: From A Decade Of War, An Endless Struggle For The Severely Wounded -- David Wood, Huffington Post

July 4, 2010, was a bad day for Tyler Southern. He dreamed he was with his older brothers, playing sandlot football, running and laughing, horsing around just like they used to when they were together as kids in Jacksonville, Fla.

In his dream, he was whole again.

Then he awoke in his hospital bed at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and reality came flooding back. Both of his legs and his right arm were gone, blown off in Afghanistan two months earlier by an improvised explosive device so powerful that only bits of his legs and boots were ever found. The explosion left one remaining limb, his left arm, broken and mangled.

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My Comment: Stories like this one makes me realize that one should not bitch about the troubles in our lives .... others have it much worse.

Brain Trauma Or Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries Will Be Felt For Decades

Image DOD

Invisible Injuries Of War To Be Felt For Decades -- Stars and Stripes

Sixty-six percent of the most seriously wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have “invisible” injuries of brain trauma or post-traumatic stress, which their families and society will be dealing with at great cost for decades, said Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff.

“The truth is, because we don’t see these injuries…they don’t receive the same level of attention as amputations, burns, shrapnel injuries,” Chiarelli said. “There is simply a bias – and I really mean that -- there is a bias either conscious or subconscious toward invisible wounds and injuries…It exists everywhere including in the medical community.”

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My Comment: I completely concur. My father and his World War II buddies suffered with these injuries until they past away. Bottom line .... severe brain trauma and injuries last forever, and we should be prepared for that.

Taking Care Of Our Injured Vets

"The biggest loss is the loss of the man I married," April Marcum said, describing her husband now as disconnected on the best days, violent on the worst ones. Sarah Beth Glicksteen for The New York Times

Looking After The Soldier, Back Home and Damaged -- New York Times

RAY CITY, Ga. — April and Tom Marcum were high school sweethearts who married after graduation. For years, she recalls, he was a doting husband who would leave love notes for her to discover on the computer or in her purse. Now the closest thing to notes that they exchange are the reminders she set up on his cellphone that direct him to take his medicine four times a day.

He usually ignores them, and she ends up having to make him do it.

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My Comment: This story reminds me of my father. He suffered a debilitating stroke that did not only paralyzed him, but it also altered his personality and behavior (he became violent until the last year of his life). Even though he was institutionalized, for seven and a half years my mother and I had to watch over him and try our best to make his life as comfortable as possible. When he finally past away, the first thing that I said to my mother was that her duty to her husband was now been completed .... she was now free. Not surprising .... she agreed.

This is what April and Tom Marcum are now going through .... and trust me .... my heart goes out to them and to the thousands of families who must now take care of their loved ones.

What Worries US Marines The Most In Afghanistan

US Troops Who Patrol Afghan Combat Zones Reconcile Themselves To Risk Of Losing Legs, And More -- Washington Post/AP

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan — It is a conversation, the military surgeon says, that every U.S. Marine has with his corpsman, the buddy who is first to treat him if he is wounded by an insurgent’s bomb.

The Marine says, “’If I lose my manhood, then I don’t want to live through it,’” according to Navy Lt. Richard Whitehead, surgeon for 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which is fighting in one of the most treacherous combat areas of Afghanistan.

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My Comment: The bigger concern should be this.

The Nightmarish Choice That Some Of Our Severely Wounded Vets Must Make

Photo: Sgt. Chris Champion was wounded when a mine exploded, blowing off his lower left leg. Champion, with Company C, 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colo., was patrolling in Afghanistan's Arghandab Valley. Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes

Some Soldiers Prefer Amputations To Damaged Limbs -- USA Today

WASHINGTON — Army 1st Sgt. William "Mike" Leonard found himself mourning the left leg that he had agonized for months about keeping. It was in December, just weeks before he would have doctors cut it off.

"There were a couple of nights," the company sergeant recalls, "where I sat in the shower and just kind of had some tears about losing it."

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Update: Some soldiers prefer amputations rather than damaged limbs -- Stars And Stripes

My Comment: I cannot even imagine what these soldiers must go through. My father who fought in World War II told me once that being severely injured (not killed) was his biggest fear during the war. That if he was to lose his limbs or sight .... death (for him) was preferable than living. Fortunately for me .... that did not happen to him (but he was wounded on a number of occasions), but I could tell by the tone in his voice that being severely wounded .... that was his nightmare. For soldiers like Army 1st Sgt. William "Mike" Leonard (and so many others) .... they are living that nightmare.

Like Father, Like Son

War Wounded: Father, Son Suffer Brain Injuries -- Washington Post/AP

MOORPARK, Calif. -- The crisply ironed uniforms of the father and son hang side by side in what they have dubbed the "Marine Corps closet," a dark space filled with vestiges of their tours of duty.

Two Purple Hearts. A backpack full of medical records.

The father is David R. Franco; the son is David W. Aside from the name, they share so much: proud service in Iraq, and a haunting, painful aftermath.

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My Comment: A disturbing look at how war injuries impact families when their love ones return home.

Are Injured National Guard And Reserve Soldiers Treated Differently Than Enlisted Soldiers

Injured Soldiers Claim Military Bias -- FOX News

The U.S. Army is expected to release a report any day that will examine whether national guard and reserve soldiers are treated differently than enlisted soldiers when they return from combat.

An investigation was launched last summer after a unit from the Oregon National Guard demobilized at Fort Lewis in May. Soldiers complained about being rushed through the process and were told to "suck it up" and leave the base. An officer even created a Power Point presentation that described them as "weekend warriors" in baseball caps.

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My Comment: My prediction .... the U.S. Army report will confirm that there is a double standard when it comes to treating soldiers.

The Pentagon Still Refuses To Acknowledge The Impact That Brain Injuries Have On Some Of Our Injured Soldiers

Sarah Wade, 36, and her husband, Ted Wade, 33, of Chapel Hill, N.C., often travel to Washington, D.C. for his medical care after he was injured while riding in a Humvee in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, on Feb. 14, 2004, and suffered a traumatic brain injury, as well as an above-the-elbow amputation of his right arm. Sarah has also been actively lobbying to get the right kind of care for her husband. Coburn Dukehart/NPR

Pentagon Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy -- NPR

During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy — a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.

Many neurologists, several major insurance companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the therapy can help people whose functioning has been diminished by blows to the head.

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My Comment: I scream with frustration when I read stories like this one .... and I know that it pails in comparison with what families like the Wades must go through every day. This is a revealing report on how we have failed many of our veterans .... read it all.

The Struggles Of Our Vets Who Have TBI

Traumatic Brain Injury Leaves An Often-Invisible, Life-Altering Wound -- Washington Post

The doctor begins with an apology because the questions are rudimentary, almost insultingly so. But Robert Warren, fresh off the battlefield in Afghanistan and a surgeon's table, doesn't seem to mind.

Yes, he knows how old he is: 20. He knows his Army rank: specialist. He knows that it's Thursday, that it's June, that the year is 1020. Quickly, he corrects the small stumble: "It's 2010." He knows that his wife is Brittanie, that she's due with their first child any day now, and that they "got married two to three weeks before I went to that country."

Stumble No. 2: "That country."

David Williamson doesn't let it slide. "Which country?"

"Whatever country it was that I got blown up in," Warren says.

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My Comment: I feel for the families who must go through this experience. My father had a stroke at 75, and for 8 years he was disabled with brain damage that was too severe for any hope of proper recovery. But at 75 .... we accepted that he had lived his life and that our priority was to take care of him so that the remainder of his years would be comfortable.

But for a young family that must confront and comfort a loved one with such severe injuries .... words escape me because I know the commitment and sacrifice that is needed to live such a life.
Kidos to the Washington Post for doing this comprehensive story, and putting a spotlight on the struggles that our wounded vets must confront with everyday.

Do Soldiers Who Receive A Concussion In Combat Deserve A Purple Heart?

Purple Hearts Elusive For Traumatic Brain Injuries -- NPR

The U.S. Army honors soldiers wounded or killed in combat with the Purple Heart, a powerful symbol designed to recognize their sacrifice and service.

Yet Army commanders have routinely denied Purple Hearts to soldiers who have sustained concussions in Iraq, despite regulations that make such wounds eligible for the medal, an investigation by NPR and ProPublica has found.

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My Comment: In my book, severe concussions fall under the category of severe combat injury .... and yes .... these wounded soldiers deserve the Purple Heart.

I Guess Injured Vets Are Not A Priority For Washington

Photo: Sens. John McCain & Hillary Clinton, Intrepid Museum Foundation Chairman Arnold Fisher, Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace and VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, Honor the Troops

Vet Snub Shocks Families -- The Daily Beast

America’s top officials were notably absent at the launch of a new veterans' center to care for brain-damaged soldiers. Leslie H. Gelb talks to its chief fundraiser, Arnold Fisher, about our duty to troops with war’s mental wounds.

It was inauguration day for the nation’s most modern facility for the treatment of active-duty soldiers and veterans suffering from brain injuries and psychological disorders—5,000 of them with families on hand. At the podium in Bethesda, Maryland, stood Arnold Fisher, the chief fundraiser for this precious center that may need to care for hundreds of thousands of victims, searching in vain for one White House official, one Cabinet officer, one member of the Joint Chiefs, one senator. He found none. And he asked again and again, “Where are they?”

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My Comment: Another example of the Beltway being completely out of touch (and insensitive) with mainstream America.

Afghan IEDs Are Impacting Our Troops

The roadside bombs of Afghanistan are brutal and destructive, though the injuries they cause, both in brain and body, can be subtle. Photograph by: File, CNS

Brain Injuries Emerging As Concern Due To Roadside Bombings In Afghanistan -- Vancouver Sun

The roadside bombs of Afghanistan are brutal and destructive, though the injuries they cause, both in brain and body, can be subtle.

Since 2003, the Taliban's consistent use of such explosives has killed 84 of Canada's 142 fallen soldiers, and has made amputees of many others. Often, the bombs tear apart soldiers and local Afghans alike. They have been known to lift 70-tonne tanks off the ground.

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My Comment: For an analysis on what may be the long term impact of brain injuries due to IEDs, go to this link.

The Impact Of A Bomb's Shock Wave On The Brain

A computer simulation showed how a shock wave from bomb blasts can make skulls generate electric fields. Credit: Karen K. Y. Lee.

Study: Bomb's Shock Waves May Electrify the Brain -- Live Science

The blast waves from explosions could jolt the skull into generating electricity, potentially damaging the brain, scientists now suggest.

Although the burns and shrapnel wounds that explosions can inflict are their most obvious hazards, perhaps the greatest danger comes from a blast's shock wave. These rapidly generate ripples in a person's innards, potentially causing traumatic brain injuries with deleterious effects ranging from a simple concussion to long-term impaired mental function.

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My Comment: When one realizes that tens of thousands of US troops have been exposed to exploding IEDs and other explosions .... the long term medical care that these soldiers may need will only grow in numbers with time.

War Injury Leads To Advances At Home

British soldiers on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Photograph: John D McHugh/AFP/Getty images

From The L.A. Times:

The military takes the lead in brain trauma research, giving hope to wounded civilians of a 'silent epidemic.'

A world away from the roadside bombs and combat injuries of Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans are suffering the same type of brain injury seen in troops coming home from those war-torn countries. On American roads, at workplaces and on playing fields, more than 11 million have been hurt since the fighting overseas started.

Almost 1 in 5 of these civilians will struggle with lingering, often subtle symptoms -- headaches, dizziness, concentration difficulties and personality changes -- for a year, and often longer. As their memories falter, their work suffers and their relationships fray, many victims of brain trauma don't realize that their cognitive struggles are related to a blow to the head.

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My Comment: Explosions, bombings, the noise and concussion of war has consequences that we are only now starting to understand. This research is valuable .... and should be pushed further.

Treating Brutally Injured Soldiers In Britain

From The BBC:

The BBC has been given rare access to the military hospital at Selly Oak, Birmingham, and followed two gravely-injured servicemen from the Afghanistan frontline to treatment in the UK.

When we visit, the military-managed ward at Selly Oak hospital is spotless and humming with calm activity.

Almost every bed is occupied, several with soldiers who have suffered multiple amputations as well as severe burns or facial injuries. Some lie bandaged and motionless, while others chat or listen to the radio.

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My Comment: The U.S. is not the only country that has heroes.

Clues To Blast-Related Brain Injury

Photo: Brain blast: Scientists found that people who suffered concussions as the result of a blast had a more diffuse pattern of brain injury (shown in red) than those whose concussions resulted from a blow to the head or an acceleration injury.
Credit: David Moore et al.

From Technology Review:

New research shows that explosions trigger unique damage to brain tissue.

The blasts caused by improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan appear to inflict a fundamentally different type of brain damage than do more traditional sources of concussions, such as blunt trauma. The findings point toward new approaches to diagnosing and monitoring these injuries, which have been a huge concern to the military in recent years. The research also begins to resolve a controversy in brain-injury research--whether soldiers who are near an explosion but don't get hit in the head can still suffer a unique type of brain damage.

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My Comment: If this report is true, it means that thousands of Iraqi/Afghan veterans may have experienced brain trauma that was never diagnosed .... or .... for those who were diagnosed, it may mean years of treatment and care that was never contemplated just a few years back. This is a very sobering report, and will be followed up by WNU in the future.

Blast Waves May Cause Human Brain Injury Even Without Direct Head Impacts

The Army's Advanced Combat Helmet replaced the older Personal Armor System for Ground Troops helmet. Its Kevlar shell provides ballistic and impact protection, and its reduced edge cut, although reducing area of coverage, improves soldiers' field of vision and hearing. (Credit: Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Aug. 27, 2009) — New research on the effects of blast waves could lead to an enhanced understanding of head injuries and improved military helmet design.

Using numerical hydrodynamic computer simulations, Lawrence Livermore scientists Willy Moss and Michael King, along with University of Rochester colleague Eric Blackman, have discovered that nonlethal blasts can induce enough skull flexure to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain, even without direct head impact.

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My Comment: It's amazing to see how much the helmet has evolved in just the past 20 years.