Report: High survival rate for US troops wounded in Iraq
But figures show injury rates in Iraq now exceed early Vietnam years.
Americans troops survive wounds or injuries in Iraq at a rate higher than any previous American conflict. That's the core finding of a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.
Author Atul Gawande, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a former senior health advisor to the Clinton White House, said the medical system used to treat troops
has improved dramatically, even since the first Gulf War 13 years ago.
The result is that 90 percent of those wounded in Iraq are surviving their wounds – that's a 17 percent increase since the Vietnam war.
But as the
Los Angeles Times reports, Mr. Gawande also pointed out that the Army is dealing with a severe
shortage or medical surgeons at a time when the US military is dealing with the highest number of wounded since Vietnam.
"At least as many US soldiers have been injured in combat in this war as in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, or the first five years of the Vietnam conflict, from 1961 through 1965," says Gawande. "This can no longer be described as a small or contained conflict."
The report also notes that the military medical establishment, just like the rest of the American military, was "unprepared" for the length of the conflict but has "been able to adapt in ways that allow them to keep a high rate of survival for the soldiers." Gawande also credits nurses, anesthetists, helicopter pilots, other transport staff and
an entire rethinking of the combat medicine system for the higher rate of soldiers' survival.
Higher survival rates also mean that more soldiers
are surviving injuries that leave them
maimed in serious ways
Meanwhile,
United Press Internaional reports that US veterans from the war in Iraq are "beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country." Advocates for the homeless worry that they may be the first wave of a
new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.
'When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God,' said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. 'I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that.' Homeless advocates say they are particularly worried about the mental health issues many of the returning Iraq veterans will face.
Alistair MacDonald of
Reuters writes about the "
emotional roller coaster" that many troops in Iraq face. And Scott Peterson, of
The Christian Science Monitor, who spent a month with troops in Iraq, writes of their talk of "guns and God," their families and friends, and their feelings about being in an urban combat situation.
'There is nothing more personal than someone trying to kill you, and you trying to kill him,' says Capt. Gil Juarez, the LAR company commander from San Diego, Calif. 'Not marriage. Not parenting. Nothing is more personal than having to toe the line, when it's either you or him.' The level of violence faced by these young soliders continues to be high, although Tom Lassiter of
Knight Ridder points out that it's hard to tell just how much since the military
stopped giving out the number of daily attacks on coalition forces in Iraq after the recent assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Also...
•
Seeing Iraq as another Vietnam (
Intervention Magazine)
•
Officer alleges CIA retaliation (
Washington Post
•
All hail to Caligulia's horse (
Guardian)
•
American troops need straight answers (
Baxter (Arkansas) Bulletin)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
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