Monday, March 31, 2008

Lab readies corpsmen for combat

Lab readies corpsmen for combat

By Trista Talton - Staff writerPosted : Monday Mar 31, 2008 20:17:29 EDT

CAMP JOHNSON, N.C. — The reality for Navy corpsmen in the field is often treating unimaginable combat injuries.
“When I saw my first double amputee I was like ‘wow,’ ” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Shannon Book. “The shock never goes away.”

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Troops pick up the pieces after injuries

Troops pick up the pieces after injuries

By: Meghan Cooke, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: State & National

Media Credit: Meghan Cooke
Cpt. Ray Baronie, a marine, lost a leg after a rocket struck his vehicle in Iraq in 2005. He now helps wounded soldiers as they recover.

CAMP LEJEUNE - While helping to move an Iraqi battalion across Ramadi in 2005, Marine Ray Baronie's vehicle suffered a rocket attack.Both his legs were crushed, and when he woke up in the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he discovered he was facing amputation.Nearly three years and 46 operations later, Capt. Baronie serves as the executive officer of Wounded Warrior Battalion East at Camp Lejeune, where wounded Marines can share their experiences, build camaraderie and heal.

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

War's Wounded Find Guidance in Aftermath

War's Wounded Find Guidance in Aftermath
Walter Reed Chaplains Help Amputees, Other Soldiers Confront Unpleasant Realities
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Who's Blogging


By Greg TrotterReligion News Service Saturday, March 29, 2008; Page B10
Capt. Darrick Gutting is the friendliest guy in Ward 57.
The bald-headed, 40-year-old Pennsylvanian roams the halls, engaging passersby -- soldiers and medical staff -- in conversations that are equal parts jive and heartfelt concern.
"Sorry, man, but this is part of being a chaplain, too," Gutting said after talking with a male nurse for 10 minutes about a favorite hunting store in West Virginia. "You gotta let the people know that you care."

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Soldier who lost leg to suicide bomber plans for life after Army as he learns to walk again w/VIDEO

Soldier who lost leg to suicide bomber plans for life after Army as he learns to walk again w/VIDEO


By: JEMIMAH NOONOO, The Enterprise
03/30/2008
Updated 03/29/2008 11:57:54 PM CDT
SAN ANTONIO - Sgt. Daniel Cowart teeters on a spongy balance beam, his arms riding an unsteady wave. His face is strained. His lips are pursed. His glasses slide as the sweat streams.
His gait is deliberate; some steps prove harder than others. He walks backward on the beam. He falls.

He gets up, now walking sideways. He collapses, his 5-foot-8, 185-pound frame hits the blue mat with a noticeable thud.


MULTIMEDIA Sgt. Cowart undergoes physical rehab for injuries suffered in IraqPhoto Gallery

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Iraq War Marine With Amputated Leg Back on Active Duty

Iraq War Marine With Amputated Leg Back on Active Duty
Friday, February 29, 2008

By Jennifer Griffin and Catherine Donaldson-Evans


But Gunnery Sgt. William Gibson, a decorated Marine, didn't stop serving his country, even after his leg was amputated above the knee. He didn't settle for a desk job stateside, either. He's back in Iraq — his second tour — on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

SoCal Marine Volunteers For Another Tour After Leg Amputation

SoCal Marine Volunteers For Another Tour After Leg Amputation

POSTED: 7:16 am PDT March 28, 2008
UPDATED: 3:31 pm PDT March 28, 2008

SAN DIEGO --

A Marine who lost his leg in the Iraq war is heading back to the Middle East. Video Images
Cpl. Garrett Jones told NBC affiliate KNSD-TV he doesn't have to return to the frontlines -- he volunteered to go back. Jones, 22, said he wants to go, even though he still feels pain in what remains of the leg blown off by an improvised explosive device during his first tour of duty last summer.

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

President praises amputee back in combat

President praises amputee back in combat

By Sommer Woodward
PRYOR DAILY TIMES (PRYOR, Okla.)
PRYOR, Okla. — A wounded Marine’s determination to get back to the front lines caught the attention of the president.In a March 19 speech to the Pentagon, President George Bush praised Marine Gunnery Sergeant William “Spanky” Gibson, a 1989 Pryor High School graduate.Gibson’s leg was amputated after he was shot while pulling an Iraqi soldier out of harm’s way in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006.

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Iraq War Creating Advances in Prosthetics

Iraq War Creating Advances in Prosthetics
March 24, 2008 10:10 PM EDT
Build Your Own Newscast

Iraq War Creating Advances in Prosthetics
The U.S. Army has helped expedite progress in getting the C-Leg to market.

Wounded soldiers returning from Iraq are getting bionic replacement parts, and the new hi-tech artificial legs are available in Las Vegas.
Dan Ramsey can relate to soldiers who have lost a limb. His own leg was blown off by a land mine in Vietnam -- an explosion that killed two other soldiers.
He's now an expert on replacements as a designer with Prosthetic Center of Excellence in Las Vegas. He says military demands speed up research and development.

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Family of injured soldier gets relief

Family of injured soldier gets relief
By Nita Birmingham (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, March 23, 2008

Grace BeahmThe Post and Courier
A photograph of Shaun Robey as he receives his Purple Heart at Walter Reed Hospital sits on his mother Becky Robeys table at her home in Summerville. Becky Robey spent months at Walter Reed in Washington DC helping her son after he lost his leg from an IED blast.
How to help
Anyone interested in joining a local chapter of A Hero's Welcome may call Tim Taylor at 843-276-2840.
More information on the organization is available at www.aheros-welcome.org.


SUMMERVILLE — Ahttp://www.charleston.net/news/2008/mar/23/family_injured_soldier_gets_relief/ businessman inspired by a television interview and the plight of a local wounded soldier's family wants to start a chapter of a nonprofit organization that supports troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tim Taylor first heard about the group A Hero's Welcome while watching footage of a soldier's homecoming on CNN's 'The Glenn Beck Program' in November.
It inspired the former Army

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Friday, March 21, 2008

Wounded Vet Again Tackles Basic Training

Wounded Vet Again Tackles Basic Training


By Amy ShipleyWashington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 21, 2008; Page A01
COLORADO SPRINGS -- Melissa Stockwell bobbed in the water at one end of the pool at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, peering through swimming goggles at her coach, Jimmy Flowers, on the pool deck. The day's first training session was under way, and Flowers called for a kicking drill.

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

'Virtual massage' could help phantom limb pain

'Virtual massage' could help phantom limb pain

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 20/03/2008
Amputees who experience strange phantom limb pains could gain relief through "virtual massage", scientists say.
Amputees get virtual treatment for 'phantom limbs'
More than half of people who have had limbs amputated report sensations that feel as if their missing limbs are still attached, and most say these are painful.
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Researchers found combat veteran amputees who watched other people rubbing their limbs gained relief from such pain.

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Wounded Soldier Remarks on Fifth Anniversary of War

Wounded Soldier Remarks on Fifth Anniversary of War
March 20, 2008 06:34 PM EDT

By Elizabeth Ries
Five years ago Wednesday, U.S. bombs began to fall on the capital of Iraq, marking the start of the Iraq War. Since then, 3,988 U.S. service members have died in the conflict to date -- 86 of them from Wisconsin.

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Where are they now? New legs will help vet regain old life

Where are they now? New legs will help vet regain old life
By Kate WiltroutThe Virginian-Pilot© March 18, 2008
NORFOLK
Jon Bartlett is finally learning how to run again.
Bartlett was a 19-year-old private first class when his Humvee hit a roadside bomb in September 2004 in Iraq. The blast tossed the vehicle hundreds of feet, turning it into a mess of shredded steel.

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Surgeon learns medical advances can be products of war

Surgeon learns medical advances can be products of war

Posted by Chronicle News Service March 18, 2008 09:23AM
Categories: Grand Rapids
Chronicle News Service/Lori Niedenfuer Cool

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Clifford Jones takes a break between surgeries at Grand Valley Surgical Center on Leonard Street NE. Jones went to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany earlier this year to operate on U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
GRAND RAPIDS — On a normal day in the operating room, West Michigan surgeon Clifford Jones sees his share of broken bones and crushed limbs.
But wounded soldiers from Iraq or Afghanistan with blast injuries, embedded shrapnel or the grisly aftermath of suicide bombs are something else.

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Wounds of war bring home new ways of healing

Wounds of war bring home new ways of healing

Iraq War’s medical challenges spawn solutions for civilians

Eric Gay / AP file
Sgt. Tawan Williamson undewent rehabilitation therapy at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio last year. Williamson's left leg was shredded in Iraq when a bomb blew up under his Humvee in June 2006. A high-tech prosthetic leg allows him to run again.
View related photos

Day by day, images of a 4-week invasionFrom the first blasts that rocked Baghdad to the U.S. military's declaration that major combat was over, see images from every day of the conflict.

Commentary
By Dr. Edward V. Craig
Special to msnbc.com
updated 8:28 a.m. ET, Tues., March. 18, 2008

Dr. Edward V. Craig
Throughout history, the experiences of doctors in wartime have led to dramatic advances in civilian medical care.
Hippocrates, best known for the oath every graduating medical student takes, recognized this in 400 B.C. when he wrote that war was a surgeon’s best training ground. Each war has exposed physicians to injuries not seen previously, and the Iraq War — with its signature roadside bombs (in this war’s lingo “improvised explosive devices”) — is no exception.

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Wounded Soldiers

Wounded Soldiers

By YOCHI J. DREAZENMarch 13, 2008; Page A1
WASHINGTON -- Cpl. Kenny Lyon's mother pushed his wheelchair down a narrow Pentagon hallway, crying as she listened to the applause.
Hundreds of Defense Department employees lined the corridor, cheering for Cpl. Lyon and the other wounded military personnel who walked or rolled past. Some of them patted Cpl. Lyon on the shoulder, while others shook his hand or leaned in to hug his mother, Gigi Windsor.

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Camera On America's Iraq War Wounded

Camera On America's Iraq War Wounded
NEW YORK, March 13, 2008

(CBS) This story written by The ShowBuzz.com's Ken Lombardi As Hollywood and independent studios continue to release films on the Iraq war, evidenced by several of this year’s Best Documentary Oscar nominees, director Terry Sanders puts the spotlight on GIs who have been wounded in Iraq in his latest release, “Fighting For Life.”

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wounded veterans smile on the slopes:

Wounded veterans smile on the slopes:
Skiing temporarily erases painful memories of war

Ian CroppMarch 12, 2008
The light was flat, the wind was blowing and there wasn’t much new snow to speak of. For most Vail skiers, it wasn’t a day to be on the mountain.But for a group of 27 wounded veterans at Vail’s Golden Peak, the skiing conditions were of little importance; last Thursday was a day on the mountain and that’s what counted.After some breakfast at the Larkspur restaurant inside the Golden Peak Lodge, the soldiers met up with their private instructors and headed to the adaptive skiing building next to the high-speed lift. Inside the building, a trio of double-amputee veterans waited to be outfitted on monoskis — a ski attached to a bucket-style seat. When all their equipment seemed to fit, they got back into their wheelchairs and headed to the slopes.

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Friday, March 07, 2008

Sacrifice: Brett Favre's Last Ball Given to Army Amputee

Sacrifice: Brett Favre's Last Ball Given to Army Amputee



Giving of yourself for higher goals and purposes is always the high road. Brett Favre proved that for 270-some straight games for the Green Bay Packers. Playing through pain, broken bones, cracked things, sprained things, coughing up blood, he put himself out there for a higher purpose, for the benefit of his team, not himself.

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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Injured troops cut new path

Injured troops cut new path
By Bob Cohn
March 6, 2008

Teree Murphree (left) accompanied son Spc. Jesse Murphree (center) on Pennsylvania's Liberty Mountain for his return to skiing. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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FAIRFIELD, Pa. — Spc. E-4 Jesse Murphree returned to the slopes on Saturday morning. His grandfather recorded it all on a video camera and his mother followed down the hill on skis. Then she cried.



Until he enlisted in the Army two years ago, Spc. Murphree was a competitive snowboarder, one of those typical Colorado kids who first dons skis at age 6. Two days after Christmas while performing his duties as a gunner in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, his Humvee struck a roadside bomb. Spc. Murphree, 20, lost both legs.

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Saturday, March 01, 2008

Vietnam Veteran Finally Gets Full Benefits

Vietnam Veteran Finally Gets Full Benefits
Updated: 03/01/2008 10:12 AM
By: Steve Ference

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Vietnam veteran Joe Tannenbaum said, "I was drafted. I didn't enlist. I didn't agree with the war."



In 1967, Joe Tannenbaum went to Vietnam and his life would never be the same.

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