Wounded in Iraq survive, but cost is high

[floda]

BY RICK JERVIS

Chicago Tribune


BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - The injured never stop coming, and their wounds tell the story of the war.

A surge in head injuries attests to an increase in roadside bombs, which spray shrapnel under the lips of Kevlar helmets. Severe burns reveal insurgents are frosting homemade bombs with jelly gasoline. An Army helicopter filled with wounded Marines is a sign car bombs, which pack a bigger explosive punch, are rising.

The staff of the Army's 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad watches the war through its streams of patients. Its three intensive-care units and 70 beds often overflow. The luckier soldiers suffer dime-sized shrapnel wounds. Many have lost limbs or eyes. Others need skulls reconstructed, their brains so bruised they do not recognize their spouses.

"It's been non-stop," said Maj. Patrick McAndrew, evening nurse supervisor. "The things I've seen here I've never seen before. ... It's more lethal now than it's ever been."

more...

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/10046550.htm


terrible..

[Skittles]

1. *sniff*

what man does to man - I will never understand it

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. combat medicine is always painful

that said, this is going to cost us as a society

Few are talking of the psychiatric injuries, as in PTSD... we are going to pay a huge price

Oh and as to the nurse, what were tehy thinking that they were going to a camping trip? Sorry every time I hear this I have to go... what did you people expect?

For the record I have seen combat injuries, never a pretty sight

[NorthernSpy]

3. "one walked in with brain matter leaking from his left eye"

I feel sick.

On one of those days, a Black Hawk helicopter deposited eight wounded Marines whose Baghdad checkpoint had been hit by a car bomb, he said. One was dead on arrival, two others died in the emergency room, and one walked in with brain matter leaking from his left eye...

(...)

"They all had the same look in their eyes: this far-off stare," Worth said. "I'd never seen it before."

Get us out, President Kerry, please -- get us out!


Mary

[Devils Advocate NZ]

4. The cost of modern warfare....

In the "old days" most of these injured soldiers would have died, either on the battlefield or soon after.

Nowadays many potentially fatal injuries are instead leaving behind living (but only just) victims that will never recover. This affects not just the soldiers involved, but their families and society in general.

Modern weapons are DESIGNED to maim and dismember while reducing actual deaths. The calculation is simple, in war wounded soldiers cost far more to an army than dead soldiers - they have to be treated and evacuated which takes significant manpower, while dead soldiers can be left where they fell until the battle is over.

It is cold, inhuman, but it is a fact.

THAT is why NO WAR should ever be taken lightly - its effect will continue long after the shooting actually stops, and the societies involved will be paying the price for decades.

[lebkuchen]

5. Landstuhl and Wuerzburg Army Hospitals are full.

[KitSileya]

6. That doesn't surprise me.

Does anyone have a proper number of how many American soldiers have been injured so far? We have the number of fatalities, and I know that getting accurate numbers from the Iraqi side is very difficult, but that the Iraqi Body Count site does its best, but I have seen very differing numbers as to American wounded. Some say 8000, others 4000. Anyone know?

KitS