“I am so tired of being sick, hurt, ignored, hopeless. I deserve better.” — Anonymous brain wounded combat Veteran

It’s happening again. We can all be thankful on Independence Day, but a special group of people suffer a dependency that locks them into a constraining future. Veterans suffering brain wounds, and anyone with an untreated brain injury/Concussion/TBI/PTSD knows the confines of polytrauma, sometimes years after the injury.

Trying to convince Congress/VA/DoD that there’s a suicide epidemic and brain wounding epidemic has been our Mission at TreatNOW since 2009. And they can DO SOMETHING about it.

The latest NYT piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dave Philipps highlights brain injuries and suicides among SEALs, but that’s the tip of the iceberg across DoD. The VA’s own numbers admit to over 146,000 suicides among service members since 9/11. Whether from BLAST, accidents, training, own-weapon shock waves, or the accumulated trauma of war, brain-wounded combat veterans are far from independent.

But this is nothing new. A century ago, British doctors estimated 20% of combat soldiers suffered brain injuries. Over 300 were executed for alleged “cowardice” and desertion. “Shell shock” and “melancholia” became part of medicine’s lexicon to describe the “invisible” wounds of war. But in fact, as early as 1915 doctors were already describing Blast injury as a “wound.” And in 2024 they’re no longer invisible, though there is a sub-culture in medicine that refuses to even admit brain wounding exists, much less that it can be safely, inexpensively, and effectively treated.

A century after WWI, a 2016 study by the Army showed yet another variation on brain wounding: “all cases of acute blast exposure showed early astroglial scarring in the same brain regions. All cases of chronic blast exposure had an antemortem diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder.” Again, a unique signature, but a brain wound nonetheless: “blast exposure produces unique patterns of damage, differing from that associated with impact-induced, non-blast traumatic brain injuries.”

It will not be surprising that so-called “Havana Syndrome/AHI” victims will show unique brain wound signatures. They, too, have been ignored as brain wound victims, too many of them characterized as suffering from “mass psychogenic illness, conversion disorder, or functional neurological disorders.”

Welcome to the Orwellian world where the “mental health” cloak of personal failings is thrown over undiagnosed and untreated brain wounds. [From thousands of treatments, we find that “PTSD only” diagnoses of combat veterans are more often political than medical diagnoses.]

What is to be done? It’s time for a Veterans’ Bill of Rights. Here’s a modest proposal to End Dependence on dismissive behavior, indolence, delays, lies, omissions, and false narratives from all those who have an obligation to help you get healthy. July 4th, 2024 is a good time to start.

Brain-Wounded Veterans’ Bill of Rights

1. You are entitled to knowledge about the best treatments available to help heal any wound to the brain, especially Concussion/TBI/PTSD.Stop believing any care giver who claims there’s nothing they can do for you except offer drugs, talk therapy, and new, untested interventions. Tamping down your symptoms is NOT wound healing. Put your demands in writing. Print out this Bill of Rights and hand it to everyone involved in your care.
2. READ more. Challenge ignorance. Based on the Doctrine of Informed Consent, demand that your care provider learn the latest science on how to treat and heal brain wounds. The science is available that confirms the safety and efficacy of using Hyperbaric Oxygenation to help heal your brain wounds, no matter how or when they were acquired.
3. You are entitled to better advice than “Most brains get better over time,” or “You have to get used to your new normal.” Current research shows that untreated brain injuries can lead to long-term physical, mental, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral challenges.
4. You are under NO obligation to “sit down and do what we tell you.” You have a right, without penalty, to expand the treatment possibilities available to everyone if only they knew to ask. Your representatives in your State and in Congress have an obligation, and the staff, to intercede on your behalf to get you care outside the DoD or VA when they will not or can not offer the best brain wound healing treatment available.
5. Dozens of laws have been passed obligating the DoD and VA to offer best care to service members. This is not about more databases and appointments to be offered the same, ineffective treatments that haven’t reversed the suicide epidemic in over 15 years. Your demand is for actual, insured treatment for your brain wound.
6. The federal government, including the VA, DoD, Executive branch, Congress, and the Judiciary, are obligated by law and ethics to help you heal. You have to be your own best advocate for demanding what ten states have declared: Veterans are entitled to HBOT-for-TBI/PTSD. Thousands of Veterans, Special Operators and combat warriors are currently receiving life-altering HBOT treatment. A few doctors and care givers in DoD and the VA are prescribing HBOT because “nothing we are doing is helping them.” Read some results.
7. Most care givers, including doctors, are ignorant of the published science and clinical evidence proving the safety and efficacy of using HBOT for brain wounds. Most will have never heard of the phrase “brain wound.” You can educate them and point them to others around the world who know, and to thousands of combat veterans who have gone outside the system for HBOT healing. The IDF and the nation of Israel use HBOT for brain wounds.
8. You and your peers have a right to your current medical records, including accurate diagnoses of your brain condition. Stalling techniques about disability ratings or denied treatment options due to “incomplete records” is their problem. You have an obligation to be resilient and thorough in getting the record straight.
9. Over 66,000 VSOs/Veteran help organizations have been born since 9/11. Appeal to them for aid and assistance in running interference for you to get HBOT treatment. Appeal to them for financial assistance until the log-jam is destroyed in the VA and DoD. They will help when you educate them.
10. Be a “BRAIN WARRIOR.” The Military Health System swears to hold itself responsible to identify, care for, and treat service members with TBI by using the latest clinical tools to optimize health and ensure force readiness. It is not different for the VA, and should be the standard of care across medicine. No one knows you better than you. Everything you’ve ever learned in the military and combat applies now to get the care you deserve. Claim you rights. Heal brains. Stop Suicides. Restore Lives. TreatNOW.

The TreatNOW Coalition’s pro bono Mission is to end service member suicides.

The information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.