I found these stories of recovery from traumatic brain injury pretty inspiring. The first recounts the journey of Brian Boyle from “locked-in syndrome” to finishing in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii:
On July 6, 2004, Brian Boyle left swim practice in Welcome, Maryland, with thoughts of a recent Independence Day cookout fresh in his mind. Under the red glare of fireworks, he’d shared his plans for college and training for the swim team with friends and family. He was 18 years old, a typical student, athlete, and “quiet guy.” And all his plans were about to be shattered.
As he drove across an intersection on his way home, a dump truck barreled into the side of Boyle’s car and crushed it beyond recognition. The impact was so severe, it shunted his heart to the opposite side of his chest. He suffered a concussion, lacerated liver, collapsed lungs, and shattered pelvis and ribs. His kidneys failed, and he lost 60% of his blood. Emergency medical personnel resuscitated him eight times, and nearly pronounced him dead at the accident scene, before Boyle was taken to intensive care by medevac.
Read the whole thing.
It is a sad but true reality that war causes some of the most dramatic developments in the treatment of traumatic injury or, in the case of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in its treatment and diagnosis. Spurred not only by those wars and the money the VA will be pouring into the treatment of the men and women injured in those wars for many years to come but by the increasing recognition in the injuries sustained by the brains of athletes, particularly football and hockey players, TBI is a big story in rehab and will be for the foreseeable future.
… the money the VA will be pouring into the treatment of the men and women injured in those wars for many years to come …
“Support the troops” should be followed by “screw the vets”. Vets get screwed after most wars, but WW2 was an exception. The number of vets is small, and the number of vets with a Combat Action Ribbon is even smaller. The only reason vets do not get totally screwed is because of the patriotism factor. Because of that, vets do have a lot more pull than their numbers.
Congress and the president will be trying to cut the VA funding and those who qualify for it.
One problem with the VA disability benefits is disability pay. You cannot get medical disability without getting disability pay. In a lot of cases, the vet can support him/herself, but the medical care & insurance is the problem. At the very least, there should a way to voluntary forgo the pay.