By Lindsey Elliott, KTKA TV 49 News, September 30, 2010
About 20 percent of soldiers who have deployed have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, which can make something as simple as putting a puzzle together challenging. 49 News Manhattan Bureau Reporter Lindsey Elliott shows us the clinic at Fort Riley that is helping soldiers retrain their brains.
Lieutenant Colonel Erich Campbell's balance is now at the top of the charts, but not too long ago, he couldn't even walk a straight line.
He was attacked by a suicide bomber in January of 2008 while deployed in Iraq. A year after the attack, he was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury.
"The real battle wasn't walking away from the wound, it was getting fixed afterward," he says.
That's the focus of the newly renovated clinic at Fort Riley. A mild traumatic brain injury is similar to a concussion, which most soldiers get from improvised explosive devices.
"You either get concussive blast-over pressure, just the airwaves through the blast or you bang your head against the side of the vehicle," Commander of the Irwin Army Community Hospital, Col. Mike Heimall explains.
One can be harmless, but getting 6 to 8 like many soldiers do can lead to problems like Campbell faced.
"I've led hundreds if not thousands of men into combat and it was so frustrating that I couldn't make a pair of moccasins," he recalls.
This center helps get rid of the stigma with head injuries and help the soldiers get back to normal.
"Retraining their brain while we give it time to heal so that they can recover from the injury," Heimall says.
So people like Campbell can get back to work.
Fort Riley has been providing therapy for mild traumatic brain injuries since 2008, but just opened the renovated clinic which provides more room. When the post's new hospital is complete in three years, it will include an area for mild traumatic brain injury treatment.
http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/sep/30/fort-riley-clinic-helps-soldiers-recover-brain-inj/