President Trump said Wednesday that he didn’t consider the traumatic brain injuries reported by U.S. troops following an Iranian rocket attack to be serious.
On Friday, more than a week
after Pentagon officials reported no injuries in a rocket attack on an Iraqi
base housing U.S. troops, reports surfaced that 11 service members had been
flown out of the country to treat persistent symptoms of traumatic brain
injury. Tuesday, military officials acknowledged even more troops were being
evaluated for injuries.
“I heard that they had headaches, and a couple
of other things,” he told a reporter during a press conference at the World
Economic Forum in Switzerland. “But I would say, and I can report, that it is
not very serious.”
Officials clarified Friday
that they were unaware of the concussions until Thursday evening, and that they
would be updating reporting procedures for possible TBIs.
The Defense Department has
been grappling with the issue of TBI throughout the Global War on Terror, as
the sometimes invisible injury can be hard to detect, service members can be
reluctant to report their suffering and the long-term damage can wreak havoc on
mental and behavioral health.
Concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury,
TBI, has been the most common serious injury to U.S. military personnel since
2000, with more than 408,000 cases diagnosed.
While most people who suffer concussion
recover within seven to 10 days with appropriate treatment, severe or multiple
concussions can have lingering and even lasting or progressive effects such as
degeneration or brain changes that put aging veterans at risk for dementia,
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions, according
to researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.
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