Health Care Costs of Iraq War Under Debate

For KPIX-TV's HealthWatch, Kim Mulvihill, MD, reports on American troop injuries, physical and emotional. Twenty-two percent of the 24,000 troops wounded in action suffer from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) incurred from IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Andre Campbell, MD, trauma surgeon and chief of the medical staff at San Francisco General Hospital, says the survival rate in Iraq is 90 percent, but the TBIs "from these take-no-prisoners explosive devices is tragic." Karen Seal, MD, MPH, of UCSF and San Francisco VA Medical Center, said the twenty-five percent of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder demonstrates the need for more mental health services. Related Links: Health Care Costs of Iraq War Under Debate HealthWatch, KPIX-TV (CBS), March 19, 2007 Bringing the War Back Home UCSF Today, March 14, 2007