Review: Harrowing tale of modern war's lingering effects
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 1, 2011
I have a good friend who suffered a brain injury as the result of a childhood accident. Today it would be called traumatic brain injury, but back then it was just an injury to be treated with a plate implanted in his skull. Over the years I've seen his condition deteriorate until he was finally placed on total disability as a result of something that happened more than 20 years ago.I thought of that friend often as I read the NPR/ProPublica Kindle single Aftershock. The story details the still-evolving treatment of traumatic brain injuries. For my friend, the injury was the result of a car accident. For the soliders in Aftershock, the injuries were from explosions that resulted in seemingly minor concussions.While few of the soldiers showed any outward injuries, the concussions caused by their proximity to explosions carried tell-tale symptoms like head aches, a ringing in the ears and problems concentrating to far more serious symptoms like memory lapses, anger and violence to suicide. For the most seriously affected member of Psycho Platoon, it meant a serious and nearly successful attempt to commit "suicide by cop" when he returned to the U.S.While military physicians are only becoming to come to terms with the effects of traumatic brain injuries, soliders are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan daily who have suffered such trauma. Aftershock is more than an outline of the problem; it's also a call to understand TBIs and to develop new treatments for its victims. As such, this is essential reading to anyone who has served in the Middle East conflicts or cares about someone who has.