Conference examines health care of soldiers

Doctors concerned with injuries incurred by U.S. soldiers and
Iraqi civilians spoke in Kerckhoff Hall Saturday about their
experiences and statistics they say need more attention from U.S.
leaders.

The conference, titled “The Medical Consequences of the
War in Iraq: Health Challenges Beyond the Battlefield,”
focused on what doctors say is the underfunded and declining health
care of Iraqis and American soldiers in Iraq.

Many of the doctors who spoke had first-hand experience with
injured and psychologically affected U.S. soldiers.

The conference was organized by Physicians for Social
Responsibility Los Angeles, whose goal is to increase preventative
health care around the world, said Executive Director Jonathan
Parfrey.

One topic of discussion was the number of civilian casualties in
Iraq.

Estimates on the number of civilians killed since the 2003
invasion vary. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University, which
presents the highest estimate of civilian casualties so far, places
the number at 655,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since 2003.

As violence in Iraq escalates, the country’s need for
medical treatment has increased as well, said Iraqi speaker Dr.
Dahlia Wasfi. Because many medical professionals fled the country,
Wasfi continued, treatment and supplies are scarce.

In the case of U.S. soldiers, more than 30,000 soldiers’
injuries may have to be treated for years to come, according to a
presentation by Dr. Gene Bolles.

The multiple physical and psychological injuries incurred
simultaneously by war victims have recently introduced a new word
into the medical lexicon: polytrauma.

Parfrey said treating the injured soldiers in Iraq is
costly.

Throughout a soldier’s lifetime, the cost of polytrauma
care can range from $600,000 to $5 million, according to a January
2006 study by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Bolles, who served as chief of neurosurgery at Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center in Germany, said he witnessed many cases of
polytrauma when he treated war victims from both Afghanistan and
Iraq from 2003 to 2005.

While many injuries were the result of violence, some were the
result of a soldier’s daily routine, such as carrying heavy
materials over long distances, Bolles said.

“On average, I performed six to seven spinal cord
surgeries a week,” Bolles said. “The human spine simply
was not designed to carry the amount of weight these soldiers carry
every day, especially under all that armor.”

In addition to physically injured soldiers, doctors also
emphasized the number of veterans that will need treatment for
post-traumatic stress disorder, a psychological condition many
soldiers experience after war.

In a piece of a documentary Bolles played, one soldier said,
“The hardest thing to deal with after war is that I
don’t fit anywhere. I only fit with myself ““ and I hate
myself.”

The original 2006 national budget allowed funding for 2,900
cases of PTSD ““ but 20,000 soldiers requested the
psychological treatment, making the budget over a billion dollars
shy.

When Republican and Democratic lawmakers realized the shortfall,
they came together unanimously on a bill, adding $1.5 billion for
the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In addition to the doctors who spoke, Congressman Bob Filner,
D-San Diego, talked about his plans to make medical treatment funds
for veterans assured, instead of the current discretionary
process.

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