Have any media reports realistically covered wounded troops?

Binka's update got me thinking, if they are pushing people out too soon and such there have got to be some unhappy patients and their families.

I am still waiting for the media to do a report on how many Reserve and Guard troops go bankrupt, lose homes and busnesses and jobs, etc.
And then there were those guys killing their wives. I hear that the military doesn't even want to hear about PTSD, etc. I am sick of the sanitzed versions the media does do where every one still love their "commander in thief" and want to go back to Iraq.

Truthout / LA Times (no date) (quoting New England Journal of Medicine): http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121104A.shtml

<snip>

Detailing the nature of combat injuries and their complications, Gawande says that blast injuries from suicide bombs and land mines are up substantially in recent months and have proved particularly difficult to treat without risking infection. Eye injuries have caused blindness among a "dismaying" number of soldiers, he says.

Soldiers who survive the initial blasts and field treatment are suffering at high rates from later complications, including pulmonary embolisms (when a blood clot travels to the lungs) and deep venous thrombosis (blood clots in the legs). Some of those soldiers have died of the complications.

Army medical teams are also worried about what Gawande calls an epidemic of multi-drug resistant bacterial infection in military hospitals. Among 442 medical evacuees seen at Walter Reed, 8.4% tested positive, a far higher rate than previously seen among wounded troops.

Despite the challenges, Gawande credits nurses, anesthetists, helicopter pilots, other transport staffers and a rethinking of the combat medicine system for improvements in soldiers' survival rates.

</snip>


Vets Affairs overwhelmed by returning Iraq wounded, faces cuts in 2005
by Barry Saunders (Newstandard, quoting WP) http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1071

Oct 6, 2004 - An influx of injured soldiers and Marines from the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq has swamped the American veterans' disability benefits and health care systems, already burdened by decades of overloading and a reported backlog of over 300,000 claims, the Washington Post reports.

As of August 1, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans who mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan had become eligible for health care and benefits. That number will continue to rise as fighting overseas continues.

Some veterans have reported long waits and confusing decisions over claims. Nevertheless, President Bush’s budget for 2005 will cut the Department of Veteran Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, further exacerbating the problem.

</snip>


+ some data at this site: http://icasualties.org/oif/Wounded.aspx
+ also: "The following is a list of U.S. Fatalities who have died in hospitals in Germany and The United States. Some have claimed that The Department of Defense does not report these deaths, they are obviously mistaken.
Note: these deaths are included in our overall totals." ??? http://icasualties.org/oif/Dow.aspx
(see this site's methodology here: http://icasualties.org/oif/Methodology.aspx )


+ Antiwar.com: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/


Ed: + Democracy Now, Wednesday, November 10th, 2004, "The Forgotten Casualties of War: Over 17,000 U.S. Troops Wounded" - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/1537224