Losses are heartbreaking

(click on pic for full article)

She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it.
By Stephen Dobyns Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008

...The number of amputees who suffer from phantom pain ranges from 50 to 95 percent, depending on which specialist is asked, but the most agreed upon number is around 75 percent...

...So far the Iraq War has led to amputations for more than 750 servicemen and women. The high number is due in part to the body armor that protects the trunk. Without it, many of these soldiers would have died. In fact, about 92 percent of those wounded in Iraq survive their wounds, as opposed to 76 percent in Vietnam...

...As with any war, sympathy and attention goes to the soldiers injured in combat, and of these Iraq has provided nearly 100,000. The first Iraq War amputees were treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside of Washington. Then, as their number increased, the Department of Defense opened a second amputee care center at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Houston in San Antonio, Texas, in early 2005.

A third amputee care center was officially opened in San Diego on October 15 as part of the Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center, or C5, of the Naval Medical Center. The 30,000-square-foot facility is not only a showpiece of new technology, with an accurate motion-capture system and an advanced bionic technology room used for gait adjustment, but also includes a 3500-square-foot obstacle course with a 30-foot climbing wall. It cost $4.4 million to build and another $4 million to outfit and staff. A major focus of C5 is to get the amputees moving as soon as possible, taking them on ski trips, having them engage in sports, and even learning to surf.
----------------
The last time I was at the DMV I was startled by a mlitary veteran amputee. He was moving pretty fast on that prosthesis, which I only noticed because he was in shorts. I knew he was military because of the sticker on his vehicle. He was young. Who knows how he lost it, around here, we call these sailor killers.