Combat Research: 1 in 5 Suffer Head and Neck Wounds

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/09/24/hscout521347.html

A significant percentage of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering potentially lethal wounds to the head and neck, areas not covered by today's improved body armor.

A unique report on combat injuries found that, in a 14-month period, one of every five soldiers injured in battle and airlifted to an American military hospital in Germany suffered from this type of injury.

The finding, presented this week by a U.S. military surgeon at a conference in New York City, led the research team to urge that more head-and-neck specialists be deployed closer to the front, advice that the U.S. Air Force has just begun following.

"I think that any time you can bring the surgeons that definitively treat those types of injuries closer to the patient, seeing them in a more timely manner, it's always better for the patient," said study co-author Lt. Col. Michael S. Xydakis, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist and head-and-neck surgeon with the U.S. Air Force medical corps.

Just this week a young soldier from a small town I visit up near Altoona PA, Hollidaysburg, died from the head wound he sustained back in February.

Sgt. Brandon E. Adams, 22, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, died Sunday at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C., according to his grandmother and a funeral home. Military officials did not confirm his death yesterday.

Adams, who was with the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y., was wounded by a grenade while in Fallujah on Feb. 16, said his grandmother, Melda Bricker.

Doctors in Baghdad were able to remove six pieces of shrapnel from his head, but they had to leave three pieces behind and remove parts of his skull, Bricker said.

He spent the next several months in hospitals in Germany, at Walter Reed, and in Richmond, Va., recovering from his wounds and going through therapy. He stayed in a hospital in Altoona until last week, when he went back to Walter Reed for surgery to have metal plates put in his head.

"He was improving very slowly. His mind was good and all his vital signs were fine. ... A week before they took him

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04267/383879.stm