Brain injury therapy being underfunded (bush slashed funding)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050318/NEWS/503180384/1016/FEATURES07

March 18, 2005

According to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., 60 percent of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has recently completely zeroed out funding for the Federal TBI Act, which provides exactly this kind of help.

In Vermont, due to recent decisions concerning budgetary shortfalls, TBI survivors are now prevented from entering the Vermont TBI Medicaid Waiver Program, which delivers exactly this kind of help.

Please call the governor (802) 828-3345 and our congressional representatives and ask them to support the Vermont TBI Medicaid Waiver Program.

and her brain injury has the rethugs running to help her. But the vets??? - screw em.

I'm a neuroscientist. You can't regrow a cerebral cortex. And without that you are basically a reflex machine.

Who knows if she got the right care when it might have made a difference?

Cutting funds for brain injuries will hurt so many people--while the Republicans weep for someone past all help.

which I have never seen any info on.

Most head injuries can be augmented if you get very high grade, immediate care:

1. sophisticated primary care center
2. good neurosurgeon and not a butcher
3. proper use of meds e.g., steroids, anti convulsants, icing down
4. pay attention to the ICP, intracranial pressure monitor

however, again it depends on the severity of the accident-0---I presume she was in one.

going on 3 years post doc.

I don't think those are doable.

me too

but I forget it.

full professor, medical school, grants, study section, soon to be grandma, all that jazz. no secret handshake.

1 child, a year old. Doing research into motor systems in frogs. Specifically identifying spinal circuits involved in certain fixed motor subpatterns.

we will have the ability to heal these types of injuries? And do you think embryonic stem cells could be a big player in this?

they don't want to fund treatable brain injuries:silly: :silly: :silly:

... but there will continue to be plenty of money to carry on an illegal war, generating even more TBI casualties, plenty of money to pad the profits of the Halliburtons of the country....

realize the tragedy of brain injury.

give back the $241,000 so that this program could be funded?

... is an opportunity to pray in public. The Schiavo case gives them that. I'm convinced that it's all about weeping, singing, preaching, and generally acting "holy" while the camera's on.

It's too bad that these people chose to defend the sanctity of life by pulling idiotic stunts such as ordering the living remains of a brain-dead woman to testify before Congress -- instead of actually doing something to help the wounded. Prompt and appropriate care and rehabilitation can make all the difference for someone who has suffered a brain injury. The TBI programs could have done a lot of good.

It takes real courage for a leader to stand up and make the right choices. Only a visionary like President Bush understands that the greater glory of America, and of the hundred families that own this great nation, require sacrifices on the part of the underclasses.

As a classic example, I cite President Bush’s recent decision to eliminate all funds from the Federal Traumatic Brain Injury Act. Some people are whining that the government is denying medical care to wounded veterans of the Iraq war, many of whom have severe head injuries. Yes, of course. That is the point. These shortsighted fools apparently do not see the clear, uncompromising wisdom of the Bush Administration’s action. Very little of this money would go to members of the ownership classes, who stand in desperate need of further tax cuts, and who seldom suffer from brain injuries; almost all of the money would have been wasted on badly damaged veterans who are of no further use to the American Empire.


(I'm in the process of working this up into one of my "Swiftie" {as in Jonathan Swift} letters to the local paper & thought I would share the interim product here. For some reason, the paper usually publishes these things, despite their general RW bent. I dunno--maybe they don't see the satire.)

60 percent of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries.

WTF is going to happen to these poor vets and their families. Why the FUCK did people vote for this aWol** Heartless satan of an asshole???

:argh: :mad: :grr: :puke:

gullible and all the more so when they have been lied to in order to raise the fear level to scarlet.

Check these words from Pink Floyd's album Meddle.... I would switch "growd" to crowd, and grown

Artist: Pink Floyd
Album: Meddle
Year: 1971
Title: Fearless

You say the hill's to steep to climb, climbing
you say you'd like to see me try, climbing
you pick the place and I'll choose the time
and I'll climb the hill in my own way
just wait a while for the right day
and as I rise above the tree-line and the clouds
I look down, hearing the sounds of the things you've said today

Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling
mercilessly the magistrate turns round, frowning
and who's the fool who wears the crown
go down in your own way
and every day is the right day
and as you rise above the fear-lines in his crown crown
you look down, hearing the sound of the faces in the growd (crowd)

You never walk alone, you never walk alone
walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
and you never walk alone, you never walk alone

A common Rethug talking point is that we've "only" lost 1500 soldiers in this war, compared to 50,000 in Vietnam and far more in WWII and Korea. However, that's pretty much due to the increased use of body armor and better field surgery techniques. We've had over 10,000 injured soldiers in Iraq so far, and it appears that many of them do have brain damage. Do you think they'll ever get mentioned by the Rethugs?

I am sure that is a conservative estimate.

I can't wait to see their reaction.

It is insulting that our veterans are being treated like this. But then we never here about the "war" anymore. Bush could care less about our military citizens.

The wingnuts want to defend Schiavo in the media, but aren;t willing to put the $$ to actually help people like her.

All kinds of blather about how they 'value life', but when it comes down to actually doing something that actually helps people, they offer empty promises and a couple of right hooks to the jaw.

Happens every single time, in every single issue.

the proper help (and rescue from improper help) I would not be able to be writing this now. Yet another reason to support anyone but Bushco.