Broken Bodies, Shattered Minds: A Medical Odyssey from Vietnam to Afghanistan

Told in the narrative, and from personal experience, author traces changing nature of warfare from jungles of Vietnam to streets and mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan and the physical and psychological damage of wounds to troops in U.S. Army and Marine Corps. And what it has come to realize. The efficiency of evacuation units has led to quick treatment of IED-caused wounds resulting in life-saving amputation,most since American Civil War. Amputation on women soldiers and their difficulty using prosthetics designed for male soldiers is examined and, large scale concussive cerebral damage, a new phenomenon in military medical treatment requiring lifetime care of the wounded, is examined and the escalating, hidden costs of lifetime care put into perspective. New, previously unpublished studies on the concussive effects on the brain are presented. Something also relative to NFL interest.Using narrative vignettes,the rising medical and sociological costs of the Afghan War are clearly defined and the escalating hidden costs of long term medical care are put into projection.Lt. General Harold Moore wrote the Foreword.