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- Melanie
So there was a rather disturbing article in today's Newsday - I've linked to it, but I don't know how long it'll stay online.
It concerns Dr. James Stutts, a retired Lieutenant Colonel and Gulf War veteran who is now disabled by dementia, limb spasms and seizures. He walks with a cane and wears a leg brace.
He is 54 years old.
"Bracing himself on a cane, Stutts deposits a pile of medical records on the kitchen counter. One file contains images of his brain. "It's like Swiss cheese," he says."
They printed the pictures in the paper. It is like Swiss cheese. And it is an appalling thing to see.
"Wes Ashford, a psychiatrist, [ed. - and one of Lt. Col. Stutts' physicians] is an Alzheimer's specialist who runs the hospital's memory disorders clinic. On a hallway wall, he displays computer images of 10 vets' brains, pinpointing areas of reduced blood flow. Compared to the smooth gray hemispheres of a normal brain, these resemble landscapes pocked by gaping craters. Bombs come to mind."
"The striking thing is," Ashford says, "you don't see these problems in the Vietnam vets, the Korean War vets, the World War II vets."
"C'mon all you big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again...."
Yep, let's all march off to the Cradle of Civilization again, and see what we can bring back with us.
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