It was wonderful to hear from him: A social networking site for a wounded Iraq veteran

Anna Carncross set up a CaringBridge web site for her uncle, Army Sgt. 1st Class Chris Blaxton. The 46-year-old soldier from Okemos, Mich., was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in October.

He was airlifted to Germany and wound up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington a few days later.

"We didn’t necessarily want anyone and everyone to be able to read about Chris but wanted all of his friends and family to be able to visit the site as often as they wanted," Anna said. "When Chris first got hurt, there were phone calls and e-mails going everywhere and it was impossible to make sure that everyone was updated." She said posting on the site saved time for the family so they could take care of Chris, his wife, Sabine, and their four children.

"It was also a way that everyone could reach out to Chris by leaving comments for him to read," Anna said. "It kept everyone up to date on Chris’ progress. Once he was able to, he started to update the page himself and it was wonderful to hear from him."

In June, a large homecoming was held for Chris at Okemos High School.

Advice for family members: Keep your friends and family posted by using a free web site like this one.

Read about a similar personal health networking website.

Thanks to Vince Little for the source story in the July 18 issue of Stars and Stripes.

An epic battle, for no reason: Undiagnosed vision problems in returning Iraq veterans

Army Staff Sergeant Brian Pearce came home from Iraq with 20/20 vision – and a diagnosis of legal blindness. It has taken him much of the lat 18 months, since he arrived home on a stretcher with severe injuries from the blast of an improvised explosive device, to make sense of that paradox.

Dr. Kara Gagnon, director of low vision optometry at the West Haven, Connecticut veterans hospital, explained that "your eyes are healing. It's your brain that won't allow your eyes to work the right way." Shrapnel had penetrated his skull and jarred his brain, damaging his optic nerves.

Since a binocular dysfunction keeps his eyes from working in unison, Brian had been straining his upper body to compensate, and was bothered by headaches and neck pain.

When the brain is jostled by a blast, the force can disrupt the circuitry that allows the eyes to work in unison or to process the entire visual field. Double vision, trouble focusing, and poor spatial orientation can result from TBI. Some can be fixed easily with corrective lenses or other adaptive devices; others can require extensive therapy to retrain the brain and eye muscles.

Through six weeks of intensive therapy in her clinic, Brian learned how to navigate a disjointed visual field and to compensate for the permanent loss of his peripheral vision. The therapy and special prism glasses have eased his problems.

But Brian is the exception; most veterans with his condition are not diagnosed appropriately. In their recent report, Government Accounting Office investigators wrote that only one of the nine VA facilities they reviewed was referring all veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to a vision specialist.

There are many veterans like Brian. Last week, a study by RAND Corporation found that about 320,000 service members have likely experienced a traumatic brain injury during their deployment. Last November, doctors at the VA hospital in Palo Alto, California reported that 74% of veterans they studied with TBI and other traumatic injuries reported vision problems. This implies that up to 80,000 veterans have undiagnosed vision problems.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department has taken only the first steps to set up a center of excellence. Though Congress authorized an affiliated eye center, plans for it are in limbo. "This has turned into an epic battle, for no reason," says Thomas Zampieri, director of government relations for the Blinded Veterans Association.

Advice to families of returning Iraq veterans: Ask their primary care physician to ask the veteran about headaches, double vision and trouble reading.

Read another Iraq veteran’s TBI story.

Thanks to Lisa Chedekel for the source story in the Hartford Courant of April 20.

They plan to address the problem with a new staff position: Access to care by a wounded Iraq veteran

Captain Brendan Fogerty, 32, of North Kingston, Rhode Island, has been the commanding officer of Weapons Company, a Marine reserve unit of New England's Own battalion. He is slow to anger, but now he is irate.

He had been visiting Marines from his company who suffered wounds. A particular concern was the treatment of Corporal Cody Hill, who suffered burns over 60% of his body as the sole survivor of a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) that destroyed his Humvee on September 4 in Fallujah.

Cody was sent to the Broke Army Medical Center in Texas, one of the best in the armed forces. Though he saw a burn surgeon on October 5, 2006, no one had prescribed a long-term rehabilitation plan for him until May 4, a delay that jeopardized his recovery.

His father quit his job on an Oklahoma ranch to help his son heal. He dressed his son's burns and slept by his bedside. The family was struggling financially, but no one showed them that they were entitled to benefits - $29,000 in compensation and $100,000 in insurance. Paperwork went missing, and the claim was delayed for months.

A nurse on the East Burn Ward told Capt. Fogerty and Cody's family that Cody had slipped through the cracks.

Infuriated, Capt. Fogerty investigated, and then wrote a memo, addressing it up the chain of command, ultimately to a congressional committee. The memo described the lost paperwork, the failure to inform the military family what benefits they were entitled to, and the inability of the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs Administration to work together.

A spokesman for Brooke Army Medical Center concedes failures to coordinate care, and said the center plans to address the problem with a new staff position.

Hello? They plan to? When? With one staff position, they'll solve these widespread problems? Is anyone in charge? No? Whose responsibility is that?

Advice: Ask the next veteran you see if he's getting all the medical care and support he needs. And get them a patient advocate like Capt. Fogerty.

Read another Iraq veteran story, or read Charles Sennott’s source story in yesterday's Boston Globe.

Don’t be a pussy: Traumatic brain injury in an Iraq veteran

Lance Corporal Michael Stubbs of Medford, Massachusetts, 24, had been wounded in Fallujah and was back at Fort Devens on "medical hold" status – still on active duty, awaiting treatment.

A turret gunner, Michael had survived three blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). One blast on May 25 had given him a concussion. He walked away from it, and tried to shrug it off. For weeks he toughed it out, though his fellow Marines urged him to seek medical treatment. Finally, he went to a doctor, who recommended he be sent home for a medical evaluation. His commanding officer disagreed.

"Don't be a pussy; you’re fine," he said.

But the dizzy spells made it impossible for Michael to keep up during patrols. The Marines in his platoon begged the medical staff to take another look, saying they feared for his health and their safety as a unit. On August 6, he was declared unfit for duty and was sent to the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

His medical records show his diagnosis of a concussion and his injuries to his back and knees. Two days later he was shipped to Fort Devens and told there would be follow-up medical appointments.

But "no one was there to help me," he said. "There were no follow-up appointments. I was told my records were lost."

To this day, he has never been screened for Traumatic Brain Injury, caused when the brain is shaken by a blast wave. But he suffers the symptoms – disorientation, depression and anger – which can take months to surface. He was having nightmares and suffering from sleeplessness – and drinking as a way to self-medicate. But the command saw no physical injury and ordered him to perform work details, including painting the headquarters' hallway.

That's what he was doing on September 4, when he heard the squeaking of a pen on a white board at HQ. He watched as an officer wrote the names of the men in his unit who had just been killed in action: Shoemacher, Valdepenas, Walsh.

Advice: Spread the stories of veterans to help them get the medical care they deserve.

Read another vet’s story, or read more from the source article by Charles Sennott in today’s Boston Globe.