[nfb-talk] Blind Soldiers Never Die, But Sometimes, You'd Never Know It

[Milissa Garside]

Hello Ryan,

I'm not sure what is so bad about this article. Can you (or anyone else) 
please elaborate?

Thanks.

Milissa

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RyanO" <pendulum12 at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:50 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Blind Soldiers Never Die, But Sometimes,You'd Never Know 
It


> These guys desperately need our help, folks. Some of the stuff in this
> article is pretty pukeworthy. I hope our new veteran's division can swing
> into action on this one. These troops who defended our country deserve a
> better life and better training than what they're getting now.
>
>
> Blinded by war: Injuries send troops into darkness -
> By
> Gregg Zoroya
> , USA TODAY
>
> ARLINGTON, Va. - Two days before a 10-mile race here, Army 1st Lt. Ivan
> Castro is explaining how he will run tethered to another soldier - one who
> can see.
>
> As he speaks, his wife lovingly extends her right hand to Castro's face,
> fingers outstretched. But Evelyn Galvis pauses inches away.
>
> "I used to be able to reach out and touch him, caress him, without telling
> him first, 'I'm going to touch your face,' " she says. Now, "if I just 
> reach
> out and touch him, he'll startle."
>
> Castro, 40, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, is one of more
> than 1,100 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan - 13% of all seriously wounded
> casualties
> - to undergo surgery for damaged eyes. That is the highest percentage for
> eye wounds in any major conflict dating to World War I, according to
> research
> published in the Survey of Ophthalmology.
>
> It's a reflection of how eye injuries have become one of the most
> devastating consequences of a war in which roadside bombs, mortars and
> grenades are the
> most commonly used weapons against U.S. troops. Brain injuries and
> amputations have long been the focus of the damage such weapons are
> inflicting, but
> the Army has acknowledged in recent weeks that serious eye wounds have
> accumulated at almost twice the rate as wounds requiring amputations.
>
> FIND MORE STORIES IN:
> Iraq |
> Army |
> Va |
> Castro |
> Department of Veterans Affairs |
> Airborne Division |
> Ophthalmology
>
> Body armor that protects vital organs and the skull is saving lives. But
> troops' eyes and limbs remain particularly vulnerable to the blizzard of
> shrapnel
> from such explosions.
>
> Each explosion unleashes large metal shards and thousands of fragments, 
> says
> Army Col. Robert Mazzoli, an ophthalmological consultant to the Army 
> surgeon
> general. "Those small missiles are generally innocuous if they hit the
> (protected) forehead, face (or) chest but are devastating when they hit 
> the
> eye,"
> he says.
>
> Surgical facilities are kept close to the fighting, so troops can be 
> treated
> in minutes. Partial or total vision has been restored in most cases
> involving
> eye injuries, military statistics show. But hundreds of troops have been
> left with impaired vision, and dozens have been blinded.
>
> Troops in Iraq routinely wear protective eyewear, but it doesn't always
> work. When a roadside bomb in Baghdad blew a hole through the heavily
> armored vehicle
> carrying Army Sgt. Luis Martinez last April, the force from the blast
> stripped off his helmet, headset and goggles. After the dust settled,
> Martinez, 38,
> could see nothing out of his left eye and only streaks of blood in his
> right. He waited for help, terrified about the damage to his eyes.
>
> "That was the first thing I asked" hospital personnel, the National Guard
> soldier recalls. " 'Am I going to be blind?' "
>
> Surgeons later restored vision to his right eye, although bits of glass 
> are
> embedded there. He remains blind in his left.
>
> "At least God was kind enough to protect me, to keep my right eye and see 
> my
> family," says Martinez, of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, who is married and the
> father
> of three.
>
> Formidable challenges await troops who return home blind or with serious 
> eye
> injuries. In the most severe cases, they will struggle to cope emotionally
> and financially.
>
> About 70% of all sensory perception is through vision, says R. Cameron
> VanRoekel, an Army major and staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical
> Center
> in Washington. As a result, the families of visually impaired soldiers
> wrestle with a contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving
> personalities
> that have helped them succeed in the military. Now dependent on others, 
> they
> find it difficult to accept help.
>
> Because the Pentagon has no rehabilitation services for the blind, the 
> path
> to recovery often leads directly to the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
> The
> VA operates 10 centers across the country for blind rehabilitation that
> teach visually impaired veterans how to function in society. The centers
> have 241
> beds, and it takes an average of nearly three months to get in. Iraq and
> Afghanistan casualties go to the front of the line, says Stan Poel, VA
> director
> of rehabilitation services for the blind. So far, 53 have enrolled in the
> blind rehabilitation programs, the VA says.
>
> The department plans to open three more centers beginning in 2010, Poel
> says.
>
> 'He has no light in his life'
>
> Even now, more than a year after her husband's return from Iraq, Connie
> Acosta is taken aback to find her home dark after sunset, the lights off 
> as
> if no
> one is there.
>
> Then she finds him - sitting in a recliner in their Santa Fe Springs,
> Calif., house, listening to classic rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was 
> blinded
> in a
> mortar attack 22 months ago. He doesn't need the lights.
>
> That realization often makes Connie cry. "You kind of never get used to 
> the
> fact that he really can't see," she says. "He has no light in his life at
> all."
>
> The tiny piece of shrapnel that blinded Acosta, 50, an Army reservist,
> father of four and grandfather of three, was precise in its destruction.
>
> On the morning of Jan. 16 last year, Acosta led soldiers on a 3-mile 
> fitness
> run across Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. Suddenly, insurgents attacked the
> camp with mortars.
>
> Acosta remembers that he stopped, turned to yell at his soldiers and then
> dived for cover.
>
> "Bam! That was it," he recalls. "Lights out."
>
> An explosion about 60 feet away sent a piece of shrapnel - perhaps
> three-quarters of an inch long - through his left eye. It struck his brain
> and came out
> his right eye.
>
> "It was a perfect hit," Acosta says.
>
> Rushed to the Air Force Hospital at Anaconda, he spent seven hours in
> surgery. Army Maj. Raymond Cho, an ophthalmologist, removed Acosta's right
> eye and
> carefully reassembled his left one.
>
> "I didn't want him waking up missing both eyes and wondering for the rest 
> of
> his life, 'Gosh, could they have saved at least one?' " Cho says. "So he
> knows
> that we did everything we could."
>
> Acosta regained consciousness as he was being returned to the USA. In
> Germany, a doctor told him that his right eye was gone and his left eye,
> although
> stitched together, likely would never see light.
>
> "He said, 'You're going to have to start a whole new life from here on,' "
> Acosta recalls.
>
> "I go, 'So I won't be able to see my kids? My grandkids? Nobody? I won't 
> be
> able to see blue skies?'
>
> "He said, 'Nope.'
>
> "I just sat there. What could I do?
>
> "A lot of things went through my mind," Acosta says. "Am I going to be
> accepted this way? Am I going to be rejected? I was pretty independent all
> my life,
> and I did everything. So it was pretty tough."
>
> VA plans more clinics
>
> Pentagon doctors can rebuild eyes, reconstruct eye sockets and nurse
> casualties back to health, but soldiers with serious vision problems who
> want to learn
> how to adapt into civilian life must rely on VA centers that also serve 
> the
> elderly and other veterans.
>
> The VA plans to invest $40 million this fiscal year to create 55 
> outpatient
> clinics across the nation, providing rehabilitation for veterans learning 
> to
> cope with partial vision, says James Orcutt, the VA's director for
> ophthalmology.
>
> The department also is taking part in two clinical trials focusing on
> artificial vision, says Ronald Schuchard, director of the Atlanta VA
> rehabilitation
> research and development center. The trials involve implanting silicon 
> chips
> in eyes. The chips act as receptors that can transform light into 
> electrical
> signals that can be transmitted to the brain. It is cutting-edge research,
> Schuchard says.
>
> However, Orcutt says, "I think we're a long way from a practical use of 
> some
> of these."
>
> At the VA's rehab centers for the blind, specialists teach orientation and
> mobility skills. Visually impaired veterans learn to use a white cane,
> public
> transportation and perform daily routines. They also are offered computer
> instruction and the use of special scanners for reading text. They are
> assessed
> and treated, if necessary, for psychological readjustment to their sight
> loss.
>
> The VA does not provide guide dogs, but it helps link veterans with
> guide-dog schools that commonly provide a dog and training virtually free 
> to
> veterans,
> Poel says.
>
> Iraq veterans sometimes find the VA blind rehab programs, which cater
> largely to elderly veterans, to be a poor fit for a younger generation. 
> Army
> 1st Lt.
> Castro says he felt somewhat out of place during rehab at a VA facility in
> Augusta, Ga.
>
> After the Army sent Jesse Acosta to a VA center for the blind in Palo 
> Alto,
> Calif., for rehabilitation in January 2006, he and his wife became unhappy
> with
> the facility, describing it as having a "nursing home" atmosphere. It is a
> five-hour drive from his home.
>
> "It did not fit my needs," Acosta says.
>
> He left the VA after a few months and was accepted, free of charge, into 
> the
> Junior Blind of America rehab program near his home in Santa Fe Springs.
> Last
> month, he completed training with his new guide dog at The Seeing Eye 
> school
> in Morristown, N.J., and now has Charlie, a German shepherd.
>
> All that is left, Acosta says, is figuring out the rest of his life.
>
> He has fought a medical discharge from the Army until his medical care is
> complete. Ultimately, he will earn disability income for his wounds. 
> Acosta
> was
> an energy technician with Southern California Gas before he was called to
> active duty.
>
> He is still with the company, though unpaid, and a different job awaits
> him - one tailored to his disability, Connie Acosta says. It's unclear
> whether Jesse
> will want it, she says.
>
> "We're hoping for the best," she says. "He's the type that constantly has 
> to
> be kept busy. We always have an agenda. I have a calendar going constantly
> with things happening."
>
> It begins when they wake, and he wants to know the weather and the color 
> of
> the sky, she says. Nothing in the house can be moved; he's memorized the
> location
> of every chair and table.
>
> He has his routines and chores, including weightlifting in the backyard or
> fiddling with the fuel pump on the 1969 Dodge Dart. (He fixed it.) 
> Daughter
> Brittany,
> 14, is mustered into duty to operate the computer for her father until she
> pleads for a break.
>
> "Taking care of Jesse has been an experience," Connie Acosta says. "He's a
> sergeant major in the Army, and they're tough people. He's a tough person 
> to
> live with and then, worse, being blind.
>
> "Sometimes, he can be demanding. And I deal with it. I'm used to making 
> sure
> that everything's in line. That he's got everything. And that's basically
> all
> I've got to do."
>
> 'I want to feel productive'
>
> Castro thought he knew how his life would play out.
>
> A former Army Ranger who had worked his way out of the enlisted ranks to
> earn an officer's commission, Castro commanded a scout reconnaissance
> platoon and
> dreamed of becoming a Special Forces team leader.
>
> Instead, the last thing he would ever see was the colorless expanse of an
> Iraqi roof in Youssifiyah, Iraq.
>
> A mortar round landed a few feet away from him there on Sept. 2, 2006. The
> blast killed two other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and sent
> shrapnel
> tearing into Castro's left side. The explosion damaged a shoulder, broke 
> an
> arm, fractured facial bones and collapsed his lungs. Doctors amputated 
> part
> of a finger.
>
> The blast also drove the frame of his protective eyewear into his face. 
> When
> Castro regained consciousness days later at the National Naval Medical
> Center
> in Bethesda, Md., his wife, Evelyn, sat at his bedside. She told him his
> right eye was gone, but doctors hoped to salvage vision in his left.
>
> The surgeons later removed one last piece of shrapnel from that eye. When
> they took off his bandages and flashed a light for Castro to see, he 
> thought
> the
> eye was still covered. "That's when he told me, 'Ivan, you're not going to
> be able to see again,' " Castro recalls. "I swore (it was like) I was
> standing
> between the World Trade Center and the two towers had just come down on my
> shoulders."
>
>>From that moment on, through convalescence and rehabilitation, Castro 
>>would
> struggle to regain a measure of independence.
>
> Castro has become an advocate of rehabilitation funding for the blind,
> visiting members of Congress. After the 10-mile race in October, he ran 
> the
> Marine
> Corps Marathon three weeks later, finishing in 4 hours and 14 minutes.
>
> He concedes that he needs his wife's help. Evelyn Galvis gave up her 
> career
> as a bilingual speech pathologist in Fayetteville, N.C., to help her
> husband.
> She supervises his medical care and drives him around.
>
> She guides him through crowds, keeping him aware of raised edges in the
> walkway and steps. She reads his menu in restaurants and tells him where 
> the
> food
> sits on the table. She watches him memorize his hotel room, starting from
> the doorway and circling within the four walls to keep account of beds, 
> the
> tables,
> the wastebasket, the bathroom.
>
> "My husband used to be a very independent individual," she says.
>
> Castro hopes to stay in the military.
>
> The Army has let several amputees stay in the ranks as well as one blind
> captain, who will be an instructor at West Point Military Academy after
> completing
> post-graduate education. Castro awaits word on his future; the Pentagon
> won't comment on his situation.
>
> "There's a world in front of me I can't predict or envision because I
> haven't been there yet. I haven't lived this yet. I haven't lived blind," 
> he
> says.
> "All I ask is to stay in the Army and finish out my years . I want to feel
> productive."
>
> The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro says.
>
> "I've had dreams where I know I'm blind and, guess what? I've regained my
> vision," he says. Reality floods back each morning.
>
> "There's not a night that I don't pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I
> wake up seeing."
>
>
>
> RyanO
>
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