When will the Pentagon listen on blast injuries?
Troops buffeted by explosions are too often treated simply for mental health—not physical damage to the brain.
SAMANTHA MCBIRNEY and EMILY HOCH | MARCH 15, 2024 06:00 AM ET
COMMENTARY PERSONNEL
The autopsy of Robert Card, who killed 18 people and wounded 13 more in a rampage in Maine last fall, reported severe damage in his brain—scarring, inflammation, damaged tissue, missing white matter. The injuries likely contributed to his erratic and paranoid behavior leading up to the October mass shooting. And it was almost certainly his military service — which included years as a grenade instructor—that led to his injuries.
What happened to Card during his time in the military represents a common scenario: a service member gets exposed to countless low-level blasts, such as from throwing grenades, firing cannons, or breaching walls. They report symptoms such as cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances, panic attacks, depression, and/or memory problems. Then they are diagnosed with a mental health or psychiatric condition and prescribed a cocktail of medications, many of which come with awful side effects.
This default—that the problem is one of mental health—has dominated the treatment of those in uniform since the “shell-shocked” soldiers of World War I. But how much of what we’re seeing in terms of PTSD and even veteran suicide is in fact the result of injury to the brain?
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2024/03/when-will-pentagon-listen-blast-injuries/394958/
