BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #15: Suicide hotline botched veteran’s cry for help. An investigation found critical breakdowns

Workers at the national Veterans Crisis Line mismanaged communication with a veteran who died by suicide within an hour of texting the hotline and failed for 10 years to establish protocols to save veterans’ text messages for future follow-up, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General.  

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BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #13: Holistic Total Force Fitness to Maximize Performance

A senior retired US Navy SEAL officer has weighed in with a six part justification for ACTION to fight suicide. His remarks relate to short- and long-term needs for dealing with force readiness amidst known challenges in the SpecOps community. His remarks are in concert with the Interview with the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (SEAC), Ramón Colón-López that follows his remarks.

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Neuropathologic and Clinical Findings in Young Contact Sport Athletes Exposed to Repetitive Head Impacts

Young contact sport athletes may be at risk for long-term neuropathologic disorders, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Across the world, millions of people are exposed to repetitive head impacts (RHIs) through participation in contact and collision sports, military service, physical violence, and many other activities.1-6 Repetitive head impacts can result in symptomatic concussions and the much more frequent, nonconcussive injuries that are asymptomatic. Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #11: Suicide Risk, Mental Health and Military TBIs

Individuals with a history of military-identified TBI had significantly higher rates of new-onset mental health conditions than those without TBI. Increased risk for suicide was associated indirectly (through new-onset mental health diagnoses) and directly with history of TBI. Meaning. These findings suggest that conceptualizing exposures (physical, psychological) as events that accumulate over an individual’s lifetime and increase risk for negative outcomes (eg, suicide) may assist in identifying mechanisms underlying frequently co-occurring conditions, as well as evidence-based interventions. Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #10: AVIV Clinic Press Release: Review of Scientific Basis of HBOT for TBI

Aviv Clinics, one of the most advanced brain clinics in the world, shares the results of a new comprehensive literature review that shows hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) should be recommended as an effective therapy for patients suffering with chronic mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #9 – But is a Concussion a “Wound”?

Advanced imaging is outpacing medicine’s ability to keep up with implications of the “new” brain science, and the nature of brain wounding. Medical textbooks are out-of-date with respect both to the nature of brain wounds and treatments to heal those wounds. Read more

VETERAN DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS (DFUs) AMPUTATIONS UPDATE

796,340 Veterans have died from Lower Limb Amputations (LLA) resulting from Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU) in the past 22-years. This is more than all US Service members Killed in Action in all the U.S. Wars (623,982) since the start of World War I. Hundreds of Thousands of Veterans are Dying Prematurely from Diabetic Foot Ulcer Amputations When a Life-Saving Treatment is Available but Widely Unused by the VHA Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #8: “New” Discoveries but Old News to Scientists Studying Brain Wounds

Military suicide rate rose 25% in first quarter, Pentagon reveals; Redefining Depression: TBI Affective Syndrome Discovered; Researchers identify first case of CTE found in a female athlete. Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #7: More Shortcomings in Concussion Consensus Protocol

This report brings you information about the Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport: the 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport–Amsterdam, October 2022. For the sixth time, an international assemblage of specialists have come together to refine a document, purportedly to keep interested parties aware of the best information available concerning Concussion in Sport. And for the sixth time, the Conference has failed to talk about or recommend treating and healing brain wounds/TBI/Concussion. Read more

BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #6: Other Than Honorable (OTH) and Relation to BLAST, TBI / PTSD

This report brings you information about how service members are being separated from the service with Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharges. One organization, USJAG.org, is succeeding at ensuring that injured, ill, or wounded active-duty service members are separated with benefits, honors, and dignity intact.

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