VETERANS’ DAY, 2024: A Day of Remembrance for Veterans Denied Medical Treatments Part 2
“Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eric Koleda, USAF Vietnam Era Veteran, National Director, TreatNOW State Legislative Efforts, President and Co-Founder, HBOT4KYVETS.com
The Veteran Suicide Epidemic: A Proven, Safe, and Effective Alternative Treatment Denied TBI Veterans
Every day 20+ American Veterans succumb to suicide. That’s over 151,000 since 2003. Pain overcomes their desire to live. Their torment is induced by over 70,000+ IED blast wave explosives, combat, and training injuries that lead to Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. They went to War for America. Over 877,000 came home with signature invisible brain wounds. It’s an estimated annual economic impact of $118.1 billion to care for all TBI/PTSD Veterans. We can treat and heal for ½ of 1 percent of the $4.7 trillion life time cost. We owe our Veterans the best America can provide and we are denying them basic safe and effective treatments.
Police, Fire and EMT First Responders also suffer high suicide rates from many of the same Traumatic experiences of death and carnage.
The Veterans Health Administration has prescribed over 847 million opioid pills from 2006 to 2014 to palliate the TBI/PTSD symptoms. Couple this with over 100 off-label prescription medications and it’s been a suicide cocktail mixture. It has been a bandage on an arterial bleed. Improved cognitive and behavioral counseling helps but there are no FDA approved prescriptions for TBI; current standard of care has resulted in failed medical interventions. The VA Will Not Look Around Them, they only sedate our Veterans and make our most affected Veterans minimally functional with their families, at work, or permanently disabled, homeless, depressed, and/or unemployed.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) uses oxygen, approved by the FDA for use in 14 indications. And it works, used 100,000 plus times in the US and worldwide. Safety and efficacy were demonstrated in 21 clinical trials. Ten states have enacted legislation, appropriating $32.3 million for HBOT treatments. HBOT is observed to eliminate Suicide Ideation! Veterans diagnosed with TBI / PTSD who receive HBOT begin normal sleep patterns, experience reduced nightmares, improved “in the moment” life with family, and gain the ability to return to normal life and sometimes employment.
The Obvious Question: Since HBOT Works to Heal TBI/PTSD, Why Isn’t the Veterans Administration Using It?
CBS Sunday Morning, 10 Nov 2024, broadcast an international piece on the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen for PTSD and brain wounds. Doctors and researchers in Israel and here in the US have perfected protocols for treating and healing PTSD/TBI using HBOT. Twenty years of peer-reviewed research and clinical evidence convinced the Israeli Defense Force years ago to use HBOT for its brain wounded soldiers and civilians. The program explores reasons to use the proven safe and effective here in the US. An interview with Congressman Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC) made this comment when speaking about the VA’s ghosting attempts to pass legislation to demand use of HBOT: “If its being offered in Israel and they’re having such good results, why the hell aren’t we offering it in the United States . . . . . and if there is a treatment that has shown such definitive results, I believe it is medical malpractice not to offer that to our Veterans.” The VA did not agree to comment for the program. You may view the program here. Reasons for the VA intransigence, with our responses, can be found here.
Take care of yourselves, and if you can, a Veteran too.
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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 BLAST injury, mild TBI Persistent Post Concussive Syndrome, and polytrauma from AHI and Burn Pits. Diabetic Foot Ulcers have become a major emphasis. www.treatnow.org
Heal Brains. Stop Suicides. Restore Lives. TreatNOW
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.
