Clearing the Fog of War

Iraq war spurred advances in military medicine

Burned over 35 percent of his body and missing his ears, both pinkie fingers and his left index finger, Shilo Harris, 38, is alive, thanks, ironically, to a long war in Iraq that has driven a revolution in military medicine.

Six months into his second tour of Iraq, Harris and his team were hit by an improvised explosive device south of Baghdad on Feb. 19, 2007. Three of his crew were killed, and another GI was injured. Their armored Humvee was torn into pieces.

“I remember my friend coming over and checking on me,” Harris said. “He was standing over me and was looking at me in sheer terror.”

He was treated quickly in the field and flown to a military hospital in Germany.

Placed in a drug-induced coma, Harris was put on continuous renal replacement therapy, a form of artificial kidney support used in only a few intensive care units around the country at the beginning of the war.

It is common today.

Medical advances have helped save nine in every 10 of the worst-wounded GIs, even those with severe burns and multiple limb amputations. In Vietnam, about three in every four patients lived.

The war also has spurred transformations in technology, as well as the development of a sophisticated military research and clinical care network that has grown exponentially here.

It has pumped millions of dollars into the San Antonio-area economy, helped spur the creation of joint medic training and improved care for 240,000 military health beneficiaries as well as civilian emergency patients in this region.

“Had we been in this war for one or two years, we might not have had this sustained focus on combat casualty care research, but I've been to Afghanistan three times and Iraq twice, and because of the duration, we've had the opportunity,” said Air Force Col. Todd Rasmussen, a vascular and trauma surgeon and deputy commander of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio.

“That's the strange silver lining of war,” he added.

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It's a true homecoming as veterans receive houses

Eddy Dodson, Robbie Cadena and Charles Henry won a lottery of sorts Wednesday, but it wasn't the first time they beat the odds.

All three veterans, GIs recovering from devastating health woes, were given homes in a surprise ceremony.

Dodson's wife, Mary, shrieked.

Cadena, a San Antonio native, wept.

“Oh my Lord,” he said amid applause.

The veterans were given three-bedroom houses that were foreclosures or returned to Bank of America. They applied for the chance to get a home but didn't know if they'd won until the ceremony near Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.

How they wound up at the ceremony put on by Bank of America and Operation Homefront, a support group for wounded troops, is a story of wars that have claimed 6,616 lives and left 49,614 wounded.

It's also a story, the men say, of folks filling the void of a military and veterans care system that still leaves ailing troops in the lurch a decade into war. Ultimately, it's a tale of triumph.

So it is that Cadena, shot twice in the chest, uses drugs to numb pain caused by hundreds of bullet fragments still in his spine. When he awakens and can't go back to sleep, his wife, Joanie, stays up with him through the night.

Henry, the victim of an Afghan bomb blast that caused intestinal bleeding that never has stopped, had a tumor removed and has been diagnosed with new intestinal problems.

And Dodson, a sergeant flown out of Baghdad during his second tour, got a double-lung transplant Jan. 13, only to face a new, daily crisis — vulnerability to infections that can turn deadly.

“For me with my lungs, I mean, I can live 20 years, I might live two more years,” said the 48-year-old Dodson, who wore a surgical mask during the ceremony. “And I know with this house I can provide security for my family where when I do pass away they'll have somewhere secure to stay and not have to find an apartment.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/It-s-a-true-homecoming-as-veterans-receive-houses-3917489.php#ixzz29FIFxkDw

'Insider' attacks by Afghans on GIs rising

Pfc. Cody Nusbaum jumped instinctively when a man in an Afghan National Army uniform suddenly emerged from a grape grove and turned on him, firing his rifle and throwing grenades.

The incident outside Kandahar left Nusbaum with 11 bullet wounds and destroyed his right hip, ripped up his bladder, severed a femoral artery and claimed one testicle. The Army flew his parents to Germany, where he was expected to die, but Nusbaum, 23, rebounded.

After arriving in San Antonio a year ago last week, he's undergone 57 surgeries.

“The sad part is one of the bullets went through him and killed his sergeant,” said Nusbaum's father, Rick Nusbaum Sr., 59, of Camden, Ohio, who is living here to care for his son.

The assailant, an insurgent wearing a stolen Afghan army uniform, was part of a growing trend of grim “green-on-blue” shootings, those carried out by supposedly friendly forces against NATO troops.

The attacks have occurred for years in an increasingly bitter guerrilla war.

Through today, 76 of them have taken place since 2007, with 114 coalition troops killed.

They have risen sharply this year, with two occurring in the past week, prompting the U.S.-led coalition to announce Sunday the suspension of training for 1,000 Afghan Local Police.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Insider-attacks-by-Afghans-on-GIs-rising-3835585.php#ixzz2H468ib46

Automotivation: Working on cars invigorates wounded troops

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — With a turn of the key, the 1966 Shelby Cobra replica roars in a Converse garage, exhaust fumes filling the air, the car almost ready to hit the road after long years of labor.

A Lone Star Classics kit car, it was assembled by a small cadre of war-wounded troops. Most weren't mechanics. Some were missing fingers and limbs, but all were determined to rebuild lives through a unique vehicle.

"I think it helped me to help myself improve the quality of my life basically for the rest of my life," said retired Chief Petty Officer Peter Johns, who was burned over two-thirds of his body in an aircraft carrier fire.

Launched by San Antonio-based Operation Comfort, Automotivation provides occupational and physical therapy, like many programs. But it's also different from the group's more familiar offerings, which include hand cycles, recumbent bicycles, surfing trips and a sled hockey team.

"Not all guys are interested in sports. You get the gearhead guys, you can tell them about sled hockey, you can tell them about the cycling, you can tell them about the other programs we've got going on and it doesn't interest them," said Chris Leverkuhn, who lost his right leg below the knee after a blast in Iraq.

"But you tell them, 'Hey, we've got a '66 Cobra kit car' or 'we've got a '84 Ford Bronco that we've thrown an old weapons carrier body on,' that sparks an interest and makes them start thinking, 'I'd like to get out of bed and go see what's going on out there.'"

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Working-on-cars-invigorates-wounded-troops-3621913.php#ixzz1ylgsngMo