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Jan 31, 2006 9:13 am US/Central
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Soldiers With Brain Injuries Often Treated In MN
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
Two journalists injured in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle are on their way back to the United States.
ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt suffered head injuries in the attack and were flown to the U.S. military base in Germany after the attack.
Thousands of families in the U.S. understand what the families of Woodruff and Vogt are going through. Homemade bombs, like the ones that injured the journalists, are responsible for more than half of all military deaths, and more than 9,000 people have been hurt since the war began.
Many of the most severe cases come to the Twin Cities for treatment, because the VA Medical Center here is one of only four VAs in the U.S. with a traumatic brain injury unit.
Even doctors are amazed that Kyle Anderson, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., survived a severe injury in Iraq. In the past year, he has undergone more than eight surgeries on this brain and finally went home last month.
Anderson received treatment at the VA in Minneapolis, where this week, hospital staff will move patients to a new section of the hospital.
The Iraq war has caused steady demand for services at the hospital. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of the injured soldiers have a brain injury, ranging from mild to severe.
In previous wars, only 20 percent had brain injuries. One reason for the increase in brain injuries is because treatment in the battlefield has improved. Soldiers are surviving wounds that may have been fatal years ago.
Ardis Sandstrom is with the Minnesota Brain Injury Association.
"When a person is diagnosed with a brain injury, there is usually lifelong residual effects," Sandstrom said. "So, you know they are at the starting of a journey, one that they never counted on."
The Association said it is seeing how homemade roadside bombs on the Iraqi battlefield are causing other injuries that make treating the actual brain injury more complex.
"These roadside bombs are causing such havoc," Sandstrom said. "They are explosions that are causing amputees, blindness, you name it and persons have to deal with so many issues."
In the past year in the Army Reserves, health experts who help returning soldiers have added a volunteer program at the VA to help in the brain injury unit.
"A lot of times, part of the healing is helping them as a soldier to heal, so we have volunteers that go over there," said Lt. Col. Mary Erickson with the 88th Readiness Command.
Experts said recovery time is different for each injury.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)