I read an article the other day about the huge number of veterans in Iraq that the marvels of modern medicine are now being able to save. Soldiers who previously would have died from serious injuries to the head, skull, and brain are now being saved from death. Soldiers in Iraq are experiencing a large number of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). They are being saved from death, patched up and sent home so that Bush will not have to count them as a “casualty”. But what will the quality of their life be? How will this effect the society to which they are being returned?
Having worked intermittently with survivors of head injuries in the state hospital this causes me great concern. I’m no expert on this, but the few patients I’ve worked with were explosive, impulsive, and their higher thinking (judgment, impulse control, emotional control, etc.) was seriously impaired. I worked with a factory worker in the state hospital who had a TBI. By his history he was a mild mannered, outgoing, well-liked person. After the TBI he was hospitalized for shooting his mother in the face with a shotgun because the coffee she served him was too hot. (Details of this story have been changed to protect the patient’s confidentiality).
Medication can be tried to help with the impulsivity and violent outbursts, but its effect is only minimal from what I understand. (If you know more about this, please enlighten me). I wonder if anyone is explaining this to the mothers and fathers, the husbands or wives, the children, of the veterans we are returning home in this condition?
When will we ever learn that no one ever wins a war?