Knee Deep in the Hooah!

NYTimes.com has published a very interesting article about concussive brain injury, soldiers, and football players. The article starts out a little morbid, but it’s a necessary morbidity. Apparently a handful of Service Members with this type of brain injury have chosen to donate their brain to science when they pass away. The types of injuries scientists need to study can not be seen on MRI or CAT scans. I have friends whose husbands have come home from Iraq and are unable to even drive themselves to work each day. To look at them you would have no clue that they are so severe injured.

Unless you know them personally you will never see the impact such a wound has on a soldier, his family, and those who love him.  It’s hard having no visible signs, or “proof” of your injury, and yet being so disabled you forget some of the most simple information such as your home address or how to operate a vehicle.

I also know a couple of car accident victims who have had concussive brain injury who still struggle with short term memory loss. There may be additional population for the study.

An Excerpt from the article:

Mr. McQuigg, 32, is one of 20 active and retired members of the military who recently agreed to donate their brain tissue upon death so that the effects of blast injuries — which, unlike most concussions, do not involve any direct contact with the head — can be better understood and treated.

The research will be conducted by the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Waltham, Mass., and by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, whose recent examination of the brains of deceased football players has found damage linked to cognitive decline and depression.

Whether single, non-impact blasts in battle can cause the same damage as the years of repetitive head bashing seen in football is of particular interest to researchers. The damage, primarily toxic protein deposits and tangled brain fibers, cannot be detected through noninvasive procedures like M.R.I.’s and CT scans.

“We don’t know much about the medium- or long-term effects of head trauma experienced by our military,” said Robert Stern, co-director of the Boston University center as well as its Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical and Research Program. “We know that there are some immediate effects in terms of blast injury on cognition and behavior. But we do not yet know whether there are any long-term effects.”

“Does that single blow result in something that doesn’t go away,” he added, “or perhaps sets off a cascade of events that leads to a progressive degenerative brain disease?”

Mr. McQuigg may be finding out the cruelest way. In February 2006, he was on combat patrol when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb, knocking him unconscious, shattering his jaw and damaging his right eye. His helmet could not protect him from a severe concussion that doctors told him was caused solely by the bomb’s force waves, not direct impact.

Now he is experiencing headaches, short-term memory problems and trouble with balance that have only worsened.

“With prosthetics, you can replace an arm or a leg and can still throw a football with your kid,” said Mr. McQuigg, who works at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. “If you have a severe brain injury, you might not be able to live on your own.”  READ MORE