Without the efforts of his mother he would be heading back for Iraq

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http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/01/23/news/state/18-injured.txt

Soldier's mother fights for his proper health care

Young Montanan suffers war's 'signature injury' from 20 roadside blasts

By ED KEMMICK
Of The Gazette Staff

On the wall above Dawna Lynn Wells' office desk, a photograph of her son, Nicholas, shows him at 8 years old, wearing an oversize Army helmet and camouflage shirt and pants.

"He was a big shopper at the Army-Navy store," his mother said. "They knew us by name." snip

But Army Spc. Nicholas Wells, now 21, won't be going back to Iraq, and he doubts very much that he'll be able to pursue the goal he once had of becoming a doctor. In addition to some serious physical problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, Nicholas was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, which is being called the "signature injury" of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The brain injury was brought on by being near more than 20 IED explosions. Improvised explosive devices are commonly used by insurgents to attack coalition troops and convoys. One IED ruptured Nicholas' left ear drum, resulting in 60 percent hearing loss in that ear, but each explosion played a part in damaging his brain through concussions of varying intensity. snip

At least he's stateside and he's receiving help. If not for the efforts of his mother, he said, he would have been shipped back to a combat position in Iraq, with little likelihood of receiving any treatment for his physical or mental problems.

In fact, Nicholas and his mother heard that her efforts played a large part in persuading commanding officers at Fort Carson to cancel the deployments of other soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division, and to bring home from Iraq soldiers who were found to have been deployed under inappropriate circumstances.