Veterans and Vision. Traumatic Brain Injury

From the American Legion - The magazine for a strong America, September 2009 issue. www.legion.org

The article; Veterans and Vision. As eyesight losses climb, VA expands services across the country. By Thomas O'Brien (a Chicago area writer)

It seems that troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are reporting eye-injuries related to combat in alarming numbers. The article reports that eye injuries are the most common combat wounds. He also reports that up to 16% of soldiers returning from the battlefront have eye damage. That percentage of soldiers does not include the rising number of veterans who have been diagnosed with TBI (traumatic brain injury)-related vision issues.

Speaking on the most difficult form of TBI to detect, are closed head injuries that display no obvious signs of damage. Even if soldiers are provided with the best helmets and body armor, the blast of an IED renders them practically useless.

The story is also covered here

On Wednesday, April 2, the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on TBI Related Vision Issues.

In the hearing, the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) noted research showing that 75 percent of servicemembers with documented TBI injuries also have complaints about vision problems, and that approximately 60 percent of those injured have associated neurological visual disorders. A study conducted by one of the panelists, Gregory L. Goodrich, who is a research psychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, found that both Polytrauma Level I and Level II patients had high rates of visual impairment and/or visual dysfunction, and that injuries caused by a blast event were associated with more vision related loss and/or deficits than other causes.

It is good to note that

Mr. Zampieri urged the Subcommittee to request that DoD/VA provide for the full implementation of the “Military Eye Trauma Center of Excellence and Eye Trauma Registry,” which was recently authorized as one of the Wounded Warrior provisions in last year’s defense authorization bill (H.R. 4986). BIAA has officially endorsed legislation (S. 1999) to create such a Center.

H.R. 4986

Essential Veterans legislation authorizes the following:

Expands VA health care eligibility for returning veterans from two to five years.

Require VA to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation and community reintegration plan for each veteran with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Authorize the use of non-VA facilities if a veteran needing intensive care for TBI or other brain injuries does not reside near one of VA's five Polytrauma Centers.

Give VA providers the ability to work with the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center to conduct research and treatment for veterans requiring long-term care for TBI.

Establish an assisted living pilot program for veterans with TBI.

Require VA to provide a mental health examination within 30 days of a veteran's request.

Improve outreach to members of the National Guard and Reserves, in response to the major role these forces are carrying out in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[edit on 27-8-2009 by Hazelnut] removed the sentence asking Mods to move the thread to the proper forum.

[edit on 27-8-2009 by Hazelnut]

I realized just before I posted that this is in the wrong forum, it should be in the medical issues and conspiracies but I was afraid I would lose the whole post if I tried to move it.

I didn't realize that the number one reported injury for returning soldiers was eye trauma. What kind of IED's are they using over there?

Aren't there any veterans out there interested in learning more about the injuries being sustained by our troops? Family members? Anyone?

Conspiracy people should be interested in these developments, and why the most reported injuries are eye damage and traumatic brain injuries. I would have thought at least one person would be interested in commenting on this.