"Dead Men Walking" Report on U.S. Vets with Traumatic Brain Injury

By Mary Mitchell

Published on February 12, 2007

"Dead Men Walking," an investigative report in the March issue of Discover magazine describes the lack of funding and adequate care for veterans returning from Iraq with a TBI, which has come to be known as the "signature injury" of troops in Iraq. Although "dream-team" medical care at military posts in the war zone saves the lives of many soldiers, brain-damaged veterans return to a woefully understaffed and underfunded Veterans Administration (VA) system stateside that is not experienced in the care of the permanently life-changing injuries caused by TBI.

The work of Michael Mason, a case manager for brain-injured patients at the Neurologic Rehabilitation Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is described in the Discover article. Mason writes that many states do not even have a brain-injury rehabilitation center, and the few states that do provide an inadequate level of the extensive care that people with TBI need. Discover publisher Bob Guccione Jr. asks why the VA system isn't doing more for our troops once the "flag-waving photo ops" are completed.

Comment on this article →