Brain Injury Clinic To Open At Camp Pendleton
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Any day now, a new medical facility designed specifically for troops with traumatic brain injuries will open at Camp Pendleton, 10News reported.
http://www.10news.com/news/16210014/detail.html
POSTED: 4:08 am PDT May 9, 2008
UPDATED: 5:48 am PDT May 9, 2008
About 720 Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton currently suffer from traumatic brain injury, or TBI, military officials told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The facility opening soon on Camp Pendleton will be part of the Navy Medicine West Office of Neurotrauma. It is the latest in a string of facilities opening nationwide to address the growing number of troops returning from the Middle East with TBI, the newspaper reported.
In San Diego, Navy and Veterans Affairs officials have partnered with the University of California San Diego to improve diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries, which are caused by a sudden and violent force to the brain.
University researcher Mingxiong Huang told the Union-Tribune that about 70 percent of TBIs go undetected by traditional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRIs.
Last month, military officials signed an agreement to send designated service members to UCSD Medical Center for brain testing with high-tech imaging methods.
"We need to find these people and treat them aggressively," Navy Capt. Forrest Faison, commanding officer of the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital, told the Union-Tribune.
The full societal cost of a mild case of brain trauma can reach $32,000 per year, including treatment expenses, the patient's lost productivity and the value of caregiving by family members, according to a study released last month by the Rand Corp.
The annual figure for a moderate-to-severe case ranges from $268,000 to $408,000, according to the study, which also estimates 320,000 service members nationwide have suffered TBIs.