It can be difficult to slice through the clutter of a three-day holiday weekend. Most of us are just content to have a moment to catch our breath and take stock of another school year that has passed. But Memorial Day is dedicated to one very specific thing: remembering the men and women who died in service, the ones who gave it all.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a new category, though: soldiers who are gone but still with us. Army Ranger Scot Noss is alive, but hasn't said a word in four years. Former Navy Corpsman Anthony Thompson is still alive, but he hasn't smiled or moved his limbs on his own since 2007. Both are barely conscious and have the signature wound of these modern wars: traumatic brain injury, or TBI. There are thousands of soldiers living with TBI now. Why? Because in other wars, these soldiers never would have survived. Because of more advanced field medicine and transport, they can now make it out of the theater of war alive, but just barely. The most extreme cases of TBI are soldiers in a minimally conscious state. They can live that way not just for months, but for years, and even decades.
Maria Hinojosa
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/29/ED5H1JM6MO.DTL#ixzz1O2DUXkCu
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