HUFFINGTON
09.01-08.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
The new diagnoses of TBI that occurred anywhere U.S. troops
are located climbed steadily over the past decade.
35k
Brain Injuries
30k
25k
20k
15k
10k
‘WHERE’S THE OLD MIKE?’
Mike kept up with the National
Guard one weekend a month, and
took back his old job as lineman
for the local power company. Out
of some kind of misplaced pride,
he didn’t admit his problems to
anyone. “I had guys that lost legs;
what’s wrong with me that I can’t
2012
you’re high on life for a while. That’s
the drug that keeps you going.”
2011
SOURCE: DEFENSE AND VETERANS BRAIN INJURY
CENTER, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
to a doctor behind a window. She
nodded and set it aside. Neither he
nor the Army ever followed up.
Looking at a copy of that form
years later, Mike realized he had
checked every indicator of severe
post-traumatic stress disorder on
the sheet: Were you ever in fear
of your life? Check. Felt hopeless,
check. Ever see bodies, check; ever
see civilian injuries, check. Anxious
and sleepless, check. And so on.
“If you look at this thing you’d
know, this dude is gonna have
trouble and needs to talk it out,”
Mike said. No one pulled him aside
for PTSD counseling, nor was there
any screening for traumatic brain
injury as there is today.
There was a point where he
could have said, yes, I think this is
wrong with me, check me out before I go. But you knew, Mike said,
“that if you checked yes, I was in
a blast and my head still hurts,
you’re probably going to be in a
medical hold battalion forever. And
it’s gonna be that much longer before you ever see your family.”
So home he went, undiagnosed and untreated. In those first
months, he said, “You are kind of
over-stimulated from all the choices,
A Spike in Traumatic brain injury