Marching on Meds
"The Battle Within" by David Olinger and Erin Emery of The Denver Post reveals that the Army is deploying injured troops to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at times overruling doctors' classifications of soldiers as "nondeployable." This helps the Army meet its personnel quotas, but it creates additional risks for injured troops and their comrades. Here's the lede.
In the weeks before Christmas last year, a brigade of battle-bruised soldiers left Colorado's Fort Carson for its third round of war in Iraq.
Sgt. Colin Barton was getting Botox shots in his forehead to kill the relentless pain from a brain injury. Army doctors said he should not wear a helmet — a safety requirement for the flight to Iraq. The Army sent him anyway.
Sgt. Joshua Rackley, recovering from his eighth knee surgery, was classified as permanently injured. The Army sent him anyway.
Master Sgt. Denny Nelson and Sgt. Joseph Smith didn't have time to recover from predeployment surgeries. Nelson hobbled with crutches; Smith wore a post-surgical boot. Sgt. Tim Graham brought a sleep-apnea machine. Sgt. 1st Class Walter Overton had a shoulder injury and couldn't lift his gear. Spec. Joseph Leon was popping morphine pills to dull the nerve damage to his groin.
The Army sent them too.
Olinger and Emery buttress these soldiers' stories with some disturbing numbers.
Defense Department records obtained by The Denver Post through a Freedom of Information Act request show that spending for some pain medication, antidepressants, sleeping pills and even an epilepsy medicine used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries has grown by 62 percent to 400 percent since the Iraq war began.
Those records are bolstered by military mental-health surveys indicating that nearly 20,000 soldiers — more than 12 percent of the fighting force — have taken antidepressants or prescription sleeping pills in the war zones.
http://www.denverpost.com/thebattlewithin