Stats Update

Blogger Comment: If the amputee rate is 6% of wounded, it would be around 679 amputees. The combat wounded is 11,324 as of March 18, 2005. It is important to note that this number does NOT include the non-combat wounded.


The Wounded
By JOHNNY DWYER

Published: March 27, 2005

"If the rates of survival are encouraging, for many injured soldiers the conditions of survival are not. ''You live,'' says Lt. Col. Craig Silverton, an orthopedic surgeon who has treated soldiers in Iraq, ''but you have these devastating injuries.'' Modern body armor helps spare the head, heart, lungs and other internal organs, but the areas that remain unprotected -- limbs, neck and face -- are exposed to explosive forces that were often fatal in previous wars. Amputation rates among soldiers, according to recent Congressional estimates, have doubled to 6 percent from the historic norm. Brain injuries are also common."