The Apathy Is Bleeding

I want to shift back if I may, from my personal narratives to a return to the conversation about the major issues many veterans face upon their return home. As I’ve highlighted in previous posts, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST), are the most prevalent “invisible wounds” of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, as these wounds go unseen, they’re often extremely difficult to treat or even just diagnose.

I’d like offer up this recent NPR report on Traumatic Brain Injury to the conversation. Their research confirms these realities regarding the lack of diagnoses, noting these key points:

“From the battlefield to the homefront, the military’s doctors and screening systems routinely miss brain trauma in soldiers. One of the military tests fails to catch as many as 40 percent of concussions, a recent unpublished study concluded. A second exam, on which the Pentagon has spent millions, yields results that top medical officials call about as reliable as a coin flip.

Even when military doctors diagnose head injuries, that information often doesn't make it into soldiers' permanent medical files. Handheld medical devices designed to transmit data have failed in the austere terrain of the war zones. Paper records from Iraq and Afghanistan have been lost, burned or abandoned in warehouses, officials say, when no one knew where to ship them.

Without diagnosis and official documentation, soldiers with head wounds have had to battle for appropriate treatment. Some received psychotropic drugs instead of rehabilitative therapy that could help retrain their brains. Others say they have received no treatment at all, or have been branded as malingerers.”

The article mentions a necessary “journey of (military) cultural transformation” to rectify these lingering problems and that got me wondering: how would we really enact that change?

If you pay attention to politics at all, you know that change is a buzzword that’s tossed about incessantly. The ever-present use of the word is designed to prick people’s ears into attention and get them to say “yeah, change – that sounds good.”

But change is not always good. Sometimes it’s bad. Actually, by definition, change can only be either good or bad, so that’s fifty-fifty in my book. I think, ultimately, change can only come about as a result of groundswell, like NPR’s reporting. We need these stories – the stories of the misdiagnosed, the mistreated, the misinformed veterans and their families – to permeate the media and galvanize these transformations.

But sometimes I feel like I’m clapping in the ears of the deaf and disinterested. As a blogger and book author, I agonize over this idea of just how in the hell do I make people care?

Take a look at this article in the Washington Times. A family wanted to escort the body of their killed Marine on an overbooked flight. Only three people volunteered to give up their seats so the family could ride. Six volunteers were needed. For thirty minutes an airline worker asked for more to step up.

Losing their composure “the airline representative pleaded, ‘This young man gave his life for our country, can't any of you give your seats so his family can get home?’ Those words hung in the air. Finally, enough volunteers stepped forward.”

America cares; it’s just that they care about other things. Did you see the “Lost” finale? The new pitcher for the Nationals is pretty sweet. When’s the next season of Jersey Shore?

Does anyone wonder whose life today has been destroyed by war?

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