Military still failing to diagnose TBI
 

I know, I know. Some of you have convinced yourselves that NPR is some sort of bastion of liberal reporting. However, reality shows that they provide some excellent in-depth coverage of a variety of issues in a balanced manner.

This week they are doing a report on the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in our troops, and the potential that 10s of thousands of our men and women in uniform are suffering symptoms without correct diagnoses.

Military Still Failing To Diagnose, Treat Brain Injuries : NPR

Among the findings:

From the battlefield to the homefront, the military’s doctors and screening systems routinely miss brain trauma in soldiers. One of the military tests fails to catch as many as 40 percent of concussions, a recent unpublished study concluded. A second exam, on which the Pentagon has spent millions, yields results that top medical officials call about as reliable as a coin flip.
Even when military doctors diagnose head injuries, that information often doesn't make it into soldiers' permanent medical files. Handheld medical devices designed to transmit data have failed in the austere terrain of the war zones. Paper records from Iraq and Afghanistan have been lost, burned or abandoned in warehouses, officials say, when no one knew where to ship them.
Without diagnosis and official documentation, soldiers with head wounds have had to battle for appropriate treatment. Some received psychotropic drugs instead of rehabilitative therapy that could help retrain their brains. Others say they have received no treatment at all, or have been branded as malingerers. Now whether you are a staunch conservative or a flaming liberal, it should be pretty easy for us all to agree that our men and women in uniform deserve to receive the best care possible. This is clearly not it.

Not to worry... soon we'll all get that same level of care.

What a brilliant, insightful, and relevant post, tsquare. Fucking amazing!

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The military has a tremendously consistent policy of not caring about long term health problems of the troops. Bullet wound, no problem we'll fix you up great. Cancer from agent orange, gulf war syndrome, ptsd, etc? You're just a whiner, we don't need whiners here.

Thanks... how kind of you to say.



(Sarcasm? What sarcasm? Of course he means all that nice stuff! Dammit Jim, he's a liberal not a slug... he knows quality, inciteful posting when he sees it!)

Interesting that you use the term "inciteful." While not technically a word, it's clear that you were trying to incite.

The point of the thread was to raise a concern about our troops who are suffering from untreated injuries. Why would you try to detract from that?

And, it's horrible. It seems that the focus is not to take care of our troops, but to limit the DOD's potential exposure.

These men and women have volunteered to risk their lives to defend this country. They deserve better.

http://www.uspoliticsonline.net/imag...s/rolleyes.gifare you speaking from experience?

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If all you're going to do is troll (been doing that a lot lately, Imp), perhaps you could take a few days off?

Yes, experience through friends and acquaintances. Its also not too hard to read the news.

I was just listening to this on my drive into work, on NPR. Yes, Pram my friend, even a conservative like me can enjoy NPR.

Unfortunately, and I know this from experience, the military has the "just suck it up" attitude for many situations. I think the care many of us recieve is given only lip service. I don't know if it has to do with some kind of strange class system that has developed from having an officer/elisted split. We recieve a lot of training to help combat mental problems and looking for signs of suicide and such but that training isn't implemented on a practical level.

Joe soldier is having a hard time ( could be family, finances, TBI ). He's not suicidal and doesn't want to hurt anyone but he definitely needs some help. This help could come in the form of some kind of break in normal duties or some kind of retreat ( vacation ) but normal problems generally are met with, "Suck it up and do your job." The problems then compound and, eventually, could lead to serious outcomes such as suicide. Then, all of the sudden, it's a tragedy. Wrong. It's only a tragedy because it looks bad on an OER or NCOER. That is the tragedy.

We had a soldier that had problems because of TBI as his truck was blown up. These problems showed in his work. He wasn't a bad guy. He didn't do anything what I would consider "bad" or malicious. He simply didn't seem to be "squared away". He got multiple counselings from his PSG and eventually he was given an article 15 and he was busted down from SGT to SPC. This was the real tragedy.

Funny, I have had the exact opposite experience....

Thank you, FishJoel.

As a civilian, I wonder if there's somewhere that I can volunteer my time to assist. I'm not a professional counselor or anything, but if I could help a soldier get a budget created and a computer set up to allow for easier management of finances, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

The other problem is that TBI is really not well understood. I can't tell you how many patients I've seen with diffuse TBI that just struggled with the most day-to-day chores. The brain is a sensitive thing, and having that massive concussive force pass through it (resulting from nearby explosions) is going to inevitably cause difficulty.

and, viola'.....thx.

I am sorry, are you sure you addressed that post to the correct poster?

Yup.

If you want to get into it, we can.

You should be able to find a suitable group somewhere in this list;

Category:United States military support organizations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I wonder how prevalent undiagnosed and untreated TBI is in the civilian population at-large. It seems this is another area where testing and treatment borne of military necessity can help the medical field in general.

Thanks, CYD. I'll dig through when I get home.

I think that you're right on undiagnosed injury in civilians as well, but I suspect that the rates are actually lower, since civilians aren't generally exposed to repeated explosive shock waves (I'm making an assumption that if you're deployed in a battle zone, you get exposed to explosive forces on a somewhat frequent basis). But, if you do any time in medicine you'll see people with lasting effects from car accidents and other head strikes.

The military didn't fix up your bullet holes, but did take care of your long-term health issues? ?

Are you suggesting that government run healthcare works well? ?

There should be plenty of ways to volunteer your time. Especially if you contact a VA office or if there is a military post you can contact ACS (Army Community Service) and ask them. I don't know what the other service calls their programs but they'll have them. There are a lot of services for financial assistance so I'm sure you could find something there.

ACS Programs - Army Volunteer Corps (AVC) Program