Severity of Injuries Requires New Forms of Rehabilitation
As of early October 2006, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was 3,094; the number of injured soldiers was 21,649. That's seven injured soldiers for every dead one. During the Vietnam War, the ratio was only two or three to one.
But there is a high price to pay for this achievement.
More than 3,000 American soldiers have suffered brain damage in Afghanistan and Iraq. In half of these cases, the trauma will lastingly affect their capacity to think, their memory, their mood, their behavior and their ability to work. Many of the victims are hardly adults, barely even 20. And many of them will require special treatment for the next five, six or seven decades.
Many of the soldiers affected haven't just suffered brain damage. They've also been mutilated so badly or have have suffered so many severe burns that the term "polytrauma" has become a common one for military doctors.
story by Jorg Blech | Spiegel
~A new wave of homeless veterans or another opportunity to 'reform' America's health care industries, to make essential services and medications more affordable?
Posted by Stubbornson at October 25, 2006 05:03 AM