Group wants help for soldiers with brain injuries

Eric Eyre, the Charleston Gazette

Vets with brain injuries shorted, coalition says

West Virginia soldiers who sustain brain injuries while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t getting the help they need when they get home, according to a new coalition that plans to propose measures to ensure veterans receive treatment.

Getting appropriate care for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress syndrome is often complicated and confusing, especially in rural parts of West Virginia where services are scarce, said leaders of the National Guard and other groups Monday. Untreated “wounded warriors” could wind up homeless, or in psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes, the advocates said.

“These people just fall through the cracks,” said Mike Davis, a Vietnam veteran and founder of the Brain Injury Association of West Virginia.

The coalition - made up of Davis’ group, the National Guard, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and West Virginia Traumatic Brain/Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Fund Board - plans to hold a summit on Dec. 13 in Charleston.

The group expects to develop proposals and present them to state lawmakers and Gov. Joe Manchin during the upcoming legislative session in January.

Coalition leaders want more outreach and assistance for veterans, as well as a point person for each returning soldier who needs help getting diagnosed and treated.

“When they come out of the military, they’re all debriefed, and all they want to do is get home,” said Ginger Dearth, chairwoman of the state Traumatic Brain/Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Fund Board. “A lot of them aren’t telling anyone they’re having these issue because they just want to get home. There’s a whole stigma thing with it.”

Advances in body armor, helmet design and emergency care have given soldiers a 95 percent chance of surviving battlefield injuries.

But many of them sustain neurological damage that can affect them for the rest of their lives, said James Petrick, a neurologist with offices in Morgantown and Pittsburgh.

About 18 percent of all returning veterans have some sort of traumatic brain injury, Petrick said. Many of the injuries are caused by explosions from roadside bombs, mortar rounds and grenades.

“The recovery from a traumatic brain injury is not weeks or months, but years, and the insurance companies won’t pay for that,” Petrick said.

Traumatic brain injury symptoms include headaches, irritability, sleep disturbances and personality changes. The illness is often difficult to detect.

“The person can walk and talk, but they can’t think right,” said Petrick, who helped treat Randal McCloy Jr., the 2006 Sago mine disaster’s lone survivor.

The Pentagon says 4,471 U.S. soldiers have suffered brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the number is expected to be much higher.

Advocates say improvements to the safety net for veterans with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders would help other West Virginians who suffer from the same illnesses.

Nearly 4,000 members of the West Virginia National Guard have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

“This is coming to the forefront because there’s such a large number of veterans returning from the war,” Dearth said. “They have limited resources when they come home. They need a continuum of care.”

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