Spine, Not Spin, Mr. Secretary
March is TBI Awareness Month, as the White House has reminded us. The Sea of Troubles at the VA and DoD is the suicide epidemic, their continuing #1 medical priority. It is also Academy Awards month. Up for Best Picture is HAMNET, named for William Shakespeare’s son, and the background to his revenge tragedy, Hamlet.
Hamlet’s reflections on Yorick’s skull is focused on death and revenge. The “Sea of Troubles” for Hamlet was bringing justice to his father’s murderer. For us and the families of the 159,000+ suicides, justice demands accountability for the Suicide Epidemic, and the memories of service members who died before their time. The links between suicidal ideation and untreated brain wounds is well-established. Less known are the links between Departmental indolence and negligence at the top. Some call it criminal negligence that so much money keeps getting thrown to failed policies, people, and programs as the suicide trends continue upward.
Congressman and physician Greg Murphy excoriated VA doctors sent to answer questions about the VA’s failed record on TBI. TreatNOW has spent nealry two decades listening to the now-repetitious testimony of VA representatives sent to the Hill who mouth out-of-date statistics and “facts” about brain wounds and how to treat them. Worse, those same doctors tout programs that have failed tens of thousands of Veterans with undiagnosed and untreated brain wounds. $5.375 BILLION spent on “prevention” while suicides overwhelm Veterans. Fifteen months in, where’s the accountability?
This week, one victim of those failures, a combat Veteran and Agency career ex-employee, called in tears, suicidal, nearly catatonic after viewing CBS 60 Minutes’ most recent reporting on Havana Syndrome. Ten years of suffering, of being separated from their career, of being forced to pay for their own treatments, of disrespect, accusations of “malingering,” inability to work, focus, remember, love, a victim of drugs-and-talk-therapy, and repeating the cycle all over again with each new flareup. [NOTE: the symptoms of brain wounds caused by Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), the likely source of Havana Syndrome, are nearly synonymous with BLAST injury and TBI/PTSD. That symptom profile is compounded by acute vestibular and balance issues.] For them, and thousands like them, expecting help from the VA or the USG is hopeless.
Investigative reporter Katherine Herridge has zeroed in on Directed Energy Weapons and the impacts on USG Intelligence Community employees and their families. Even she does not go far enough, failing to go beyond cataloging the destruction. She still fails to talk about how some lucky few have found relief and healing using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
Dr James Giordano, Director, Center for Disruptive Technology and Future Warfare, Institute for National Security Studies, and Dr. David Relman, MD of Stanford University, both talk about the real consequences of the damage caused by DEWs: loss of consciousness, seizures, mental lapses, inability to concentrate, headaches, intense pressure, pain, disorientation, and difficulty with balance. Intel Agencies and the LEAs have strained to substitute “causes” for a decades-long list of reported symptoms: atmospherics; the environment; a virus; crickets; preexisting conditions; and even mass hysteria.
Such shuck-and-jive is not new [we’re talking deception and stalling while acting agreeeable and seemingly concerned with truth]. The tactic is classic, mimicing the bafflegab in the past from Big Tobacco; the opioid crisis; the Pentagon Papers; and current spinning like the NFL on CTE; Veterans being denied proper diagnoses and disability for brain wounds; and the continuing charade that the VA is the Center of Excellence for TBI. There was a time, ten or 15 years ago when we didn’t have a decade of science and evidence-based medicine, and clinical successes worldwide to demonstrate how to help treat and heal brain wounds caused by TBI, PTSD, Concussion, Havana Syndrome, and a myriad of other neurological and physical insults to the brain. And if the VA is the COE, why are Intrepid Spirit Center doctors sending brain wounded patients for HBOT with the comment: “Nothing we’re doing for them is working”?
We know better. The science is sound. The results are demonstrable. It is no longer sufficient for doctors and legislators and military medicine to feign ignorance about the benefits of HBOT. At a minimum, HBOT should have an equal seat at the “alternative therapy” table. The Secretary talks about issuing vouchers to help Veterans get psychedlic help outside the VA. Congressman and retired USMC LTG Jack Bergmann thinks the Government needs to grow spines to overcome the do-nothing attitudes preventing getting help to Veterans. One wonders why the VA needs over a dozen studies on psychedelics? There’s no ignoring a seeming crack in the wall-of-silence about the ineffectiveness of too many VA programs.
And remember: nothing the VA or DoD uses or does to control symptoms is on-label for TBI. We could learn from the Israelis who use HBOT for PTSD and TBI across the country and especially over the last decade for their brain wounded Veterans and active duty.
The VA needs to reread its own counsel, issued by their premier researchers over a decade ago. There is no appreciable evidence that anything has changed. Drs. Hoge and Jonas wrote: “It is clear that [HBOT] is a healing environment. . . . These findings reinforce the argument that effective interventions do not yet exist within the present structure of care or that routine postconcussion interventions within the Department of Defense or Veterans Health Administration may even have iatrogenic effects that contribute to symptom persistence . . . .” Iatrogenic: harm, illness, or adverse effects unintentionally caused by a physician, medical treatment, diagnostic procedure, or other medical activity.
They’re losing. We’re winning, just not fast enough. We need to work together. Veterans and active duty need help, and it’s available. HBOT Heals Brains, Stops Suicides, Restores Lives. TreatNOW.
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The TreatNOW Mission is ending service member suicides. Along the way, we have learned that we can end suicidal ideation, help end symptoms of PTSD, get patients off most of their drugs, and heal brain wounds to end the effects of Concussion, BLAST injury, mild TBI, Persistent Post Concussive Syndrome, and polytrauma from Operator Syndrome, AHI, and Burn Pits. No Veteran or civilian has ever been killed or hurt while undergoing HBOT treatment for TBI/PTSD.
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.