For those who have long supported the Soldier’s Angels Voice Activated Laptops for Our Injured Troops (VALOur-IT), this is one of the things the program has been addressing, along with the coputer contact with the world, by providing GPS Units for those wounded service members who are getting out and about. The reason: TBI has an associated symptom of loss of short term memory, and the GPS Units help remind the driver where they were headed. (Note: You don’t have to wait until this November to donate to VALOur-IT…SA will be happy to accept donations all year long…even today to help this great cause)
Below is the article Chelsea asked if I could post to help get attention to the cause:
Traumatic Brain Injuries in the Military
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is becoming a common wound of modern warfare. It has even been coined the “signature wound” of the War on Terror. While TBI is becoming more prevalent in wartime activity, many service men and women continue to go undiagnosed. Institutions, like the US Department of Veterans Affairs, are working to make quick and accurate diagnoses in order to prescribe appropriate and effective treatment.
TBI is caused by forced trauma to the head, either by being shaken or hit. The severity of a TBI varies from case to case, but symptoms range from mild concussions to a debilitating state. The majority of TBI’s acquired by military personnel are classified as mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI). Initial symptoms of MTBI consist of loss of consciousness, disorientation, loss of memory, headache, and temporary loss of hearing and vision. They are often partnered with anxiety, irritability, difficulties processing information, limited concentration amongst other problems experienced down the road. While MTBI is most common amongst the men and women of the armed forces, more severe cases of TBI are happening much more frequently and often require the victim to attended specialty rehabilitative nursing centers, like CareMeridian.
The most common cause of a TBI in the military is due to blasts. There are three degrees of blast injuries where a TBI is common; Primary (due to blast itself), Secondary (due to objects being propelled by a blast) and Tertiary (due to a collision with a third party object). According to the Veterans Health Initiative, active male members of the military from the ages 18-24 are hospitalized with a TBI at a rate of 231 per 100,000 and females 150 per 100,000. Based on military force projections this would mean that 4,141 military personnel are hospitalized on average each year with a TBI, and these numbers often rise during wartimes.
The best prevention for veterans to avert the long-term effects of a brain injury is to recognize the symptoms of a TBI. Once the symptoms are identified an individual should take basic precautionary measures in order to begin the healing and recovery process until a more specific diagnosis can be made.
Service men and women give so much to protect this country and they deserve to come home to a happy and healthy life. Creating awareness about TBI will help ensure their long term health. By helping our veterans, their friends and their families recognize the early warning signs of a TBI, treatment can be sought as early as possible.
From a practical need for a blogger and a blog reader sprang a project that has now aided over 4000 wounded warriors in getting some normalcy into their lives. The project blog is here.
Even a few bucks adds up. Times are lean, but consider the “leaness” for those who will never recover what they have lost in the service.
Thanks for helping out.
If you have no preference for a service team to donate to, please drop your funds under the Navy, but know they still go into the same pot at the end of the day.
At the end of the day and drive, all the funds go towards the same cause, VALOur-IT from Soldier’s Angels, helping those wounded warriors by prviding laptops with voice activated software, Nintendo Wiis for therapy and GPS units for those suffering short term memory loss issues from TBI.
If you don’t have a blog/site, please consider passing the word around and condisring donating yourself. Every little bit helps!
The drive begins 10/26 (MONDAY!) and runs through Veteran’s Day (11/11) this year.
This project came about as a result of one then Army CAPT, now Major, a blogger, being hit by an IED and ending up in Walter Reed, and being asked by a rep from Soldier’s Angels if they could get him anything. “A laptop, so I can keep blogging.” Well, from one used laptop from eBay, the addition of Dragon Naturally Speaking from a gracious and anonymous donation, then the suggestion from one of his readers about wider applicability, came the program that has helped thousands of wounded warriors with sight or hand mobility issues.
In fact, if you’ll be at BlogExpo in Las Vegas (10/13-15), you can most likely meet Chuck Z, “patient 0!” BTW, he could use a little help getting there: See this post of his.
Beginning last year, VALOur-IT began providing GPS units (helps those with short term memory issues as a result of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI from IEDs), and Nintendo Wiis (gets them to do physical therapy like things, because they love to play games)
This year, the drive will run from 10/26 to 11/11.
We’re looking for bloggers and websites to promote the drive, and those who wold be so kind to exploit their email lists to help the cause. Effort? Punch our some emails with links to the donate site, and make some posts. Whip up the crowd, ask for a few $. Not hard, but worthwhile.
My allegiance is to Team Navy, but know these things:
All money goes into one fund to support this project
Funding only pays for the laptops, GPS units or Wiis, or their transportation…nothing more
The competitive nature of we former service members allows us to act like we did once before in our lives
The project affects more than just the “now” for the people it helps. It gives them a leg up on when they leave the service with disabilities, as they can operate computers, despite having had some modifications to their lives
The project’s blog is here, if you’d like to dig in and see what the program has been and is doing now.
Thanks in advance. Please spread the word and leave a comment if you’d like to participate this year. I’ll get you to the Team Navy leader…:) Well, maybe to the other service team leaders, if I must. голова болит секс
How better to begin a day, than to be invited to a long standing group os mostly Naval Aviators, and some Marines, who span military history from 1942 to the mid-90s (I was the youngest one…and moved that goal post)?
Via business networking and meeting and doing business with told me to show up for breakfast. I didn’t get al the names right, I’m sure, but a Navy Cross winner, a retired Admiral who wnet “downtown.” The man with the most CUTLASS traps every. A P-3 pilot who was one of my CO’s roommates at USNA, and…we had met at the change of command, and figured out he and I had crossed paths in Dec 76 @ Comm School in Newport. And that’s not all the history I sat in the middle of, but, I was the lone “Shoe,” and non-USNA. They still welcomed me in and told me to come back…They do this every two weeks.
More later. Much more I’m sure….maybe an interview from a Cutlass pilot….
It’s been a bit of a haul, and it’s definitely been the result of a large community helping to send traffic my way.
Fitting the hit came from Edinburgh, Scotland, and from the really, really large website, gCaptain’s blogTouch the Top of the World pspHighlander . Got my “SWO sweater” from there, thanks to the HC-6 Helo Det OIC buying some Royal Navy ones, made from real wool, from the RN guys at the base in Roysyth, while on the trip to the North Atlantic for Silver Jubilee.
The price was a huge $14…and only a few of us too the OIC up on it, and when he got stateside a few weeks later, and sold them to his squadron mates for $50.
Stil have the non-USN SWO Sweater in the closet. Never had the velcro patch for the nametag, but, I had mine before the USN decided the SWOs could have something special, which they then took away and made them Navy wide. I wore it many a cold night on the bridge watches, and in CICs on several ships as well, since the equipment had to stay chilled in there…to heck with human comfort! And then there was the time the MCPON decided we had to wear your collar tips out because an SA complained to him about how the tips in irritated his neck….
So, here I am at at least a significant milestone for to show for doing this across three blogging platforms and over 1200 posts.
I’m grateful for all the incoming links and thankful for all the wonderful people I’ve come to know in real life and virtually.
Beginning a new adventure tomorrow AM. Not sure how much posting will get done for at least a few days, while I get the “sea legs” in the new environs.
But…for those who read this: If you’re not registered at Little Green Footballs, I’d recommend you get over there and do so (Charles opens and closes the function to sign up periodically). Why? The “Spin Off Link” function that has shown up in the last few weeks. To any post, registered users can add a spin off link to the list. Doesn’t have to relate, but it can.
The “value added?” When you see a great MilBlog or troop support story, or the real gouge from the front on a website, you can slap it up there for the world to peruse. I try to grab some “best of” from my rounds and get them billing there. LGF is way past Capt Lex’s million hits, to the exposure is most excellent. Come on, lets push the great stories out there!
More later. If the “regularly scheduled” posts are missing, come back later. Work hours will be late AM to mid evening…
Bonus tip: Drew Carey has his own libertarian leaning web site. Check out his “Living Large” videos, where they go out to find the shrinking “middle class” the news keeps reading the obits for.
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