Air Force Unveils Brain Injury Clinic In Alaska
These are some of the unseen scars left by a roadside bomb in Iraq. But at the Air Forces only traumatic brain injury clinic, the 26-year-old soldier is learning new skills to deal with the aftermath of the blast.
“I wouldnt say my memory really is getting any better, but my ability to adapt to the fact that my memorys really not getting any better has gotten a lot better,” said DeRosa, a sergeant assigned to Fort Richardson in Anchorage.
He is among 1,500 patients screened since the TBI Clinic opened at neighboring Elmendorf Air Force Base and one of 75 currently monitored on a regular basis.
The clinic was established in early 2007 at the Elmendorf hospital. Base medics and officials anticipated that some of the 3,500 paratroopers with the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team deployed to Iraq from Fort Richardson would return with the wars signature wound.
Soon after the clinic opened, Army traumatic brain injury specialists were temporarily assigned to help the Air Force with returning soldiers.
The facility has since evolved with more services and staff experts including a case manager and a speech-language pathologist. Its now among a growing number of treatment outlets within the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs for military members with brain injuries and the post traumatic stress disorder that frequently accompany them.
The DODs health affairs office is assessing the Elmendorf clinic and many others. The DOD estimates that up to 20 percent of the roughly 1.8 million U.S. troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned with brain injuries.
The vast majority of them suffer concussions such as those seen at the Air Force clinic, which also treats military members and relatives with brain injuries resulting from car crashes, hiking accidents and slipping on ice.
Without the Elmendorf service, the only options for Alaska-based troops would be facilities outside the remote state or long-distance programs by civilian providers, said Maj. Peter Osterbauer, a neurologist who heads the TBI clinic.
“Its not just the one brigade that was going to come back,” Osterbauer said. “Theres going to be more in the future.”
Little more than a year after the 4th Brigade returned from Iraq, in fact, 3,500 of its paratroopers shipped out last month for an Afghanistan assignment.
Clinic officials say screening has improved to more accurately diagnose cases like DeRosas. But as with so many others hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan, his injury wasnt immediately apparent after the initial shock of the June 2007 explosion.
DeRosa didnt have time to dwell on his more long-term symptoms. He dismissed them as wartime stress. It wasnt until after returning six months later that his problems became apparent, particularly after a long visit with his family in his hometown of Berkley, Mass.
“I started noticing things,” he said. “My hearing was not as good, I still had a headache, I wasnt sleeping well, I wasnt sure where I put my car keys.”
Back in Alaska, a post-deployment screening showed DeRosa needed to be checked out further by a battery of tests. Ultimately diagnosed with TBI, he became a patient at the Elmendorf clinic last spring.
DeRosas progress is monitored by Osterbauer. He meets three times a week with Maj. Ava Craig, an Air Force speech pathologist who said DeRosa has shown improvements in such areas as language, reader comprehension and concentration.
None of the medications prescribed for his headaches has worked, which makes DeRosa eligible for Botox injections, highly effective in treating headaches.