Friday, August 26, 2011

Treating Concussions In War Zones

ROAD WARRIORS - U.S. Air Force Senior Airman John Fitzgerald, left, patrols a road with many known improvised explosive devices during an operation in the Alingar district in Afghanistan's Laghman province, Aug. 21, 2011. Fitzgerald is a medic assigned to the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane

Treatment for Concussions in War Zones -- At War/New York Times

Commander Earl Frantz is the officer in charge of the Concussion Restoration Care Center at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, the first multidisciplinary concussion rehabilitation clinic set up in a war zone.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The idea of treating warriors for concussion during the acute phase in the war zone is a new concept.

During the first nine years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, if a service member was not bleeding or visibly broken on the battlefield, he shook off any cobwebs in his head from an attack and returned to the fight.

Read more ....

My Comment: The part of this post that caught my eye was the following ....

.... Concussion, often called mild traumatic brain injury, is now the most common battlefield injury, affecting more than 300,000 service members since 2001.

300,000 .... that's a lot of injuries and "close calls".

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