Two of our own, Doug Chandler and Jeanne Obrien we featured on the front page of the Salinas Californian in honor of Veteran's Day on November 11th 2010. Jeanne is a member of our Honor Independence Veterans TBI Advisory Committee and was interviewed about her experience in the military as well as her experience having a TBI or traumatic Brain Injury from her service. This will link you to the article but it has been listed below.
Returning Monterey County veterans learn to live with traumatic brain injuries
Group hopes to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury
For two years after her return to Monterey County, retired U.S. Army veteran Jeanne OBrien wondered about her sanity.
Injured while stationed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, the Marina resident recalled Tuesday that it wasn't until she went to the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in May 2009 that she learned the reason for her memory loss, problems with thought and speech processes and motor deficiencies that is keeping her in a wheelchair as a precaution.
Traumatic brain injury, OBrien explains, a condition she received in 2007 while guarding ammunition that was awaiting pickup from another company. OBrien, 40, a driver for the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne division, said a gale force wind had knocked over a piece of plywood which then struck the back of her head. She said her head bounced between the plywood and a metal can used to store the ammunition.
"I can laugh about it now, but it really isn't funny," OBrien said. "The army didn't say I had it [at first]. I didn't find out until I was dealing with [the VA in] Palo Alto. That was two years ago ... two years of wondering if I was going crazy."
As the nation celebrates Veterans Day, a nonprofit organization — the Central Coast Center for Independent Living — hopes to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury among returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and the services available for these men and women as well as their families.
In November 2009, CCCIL received a one-time grant from the California Department of Rehabilitation — made possible through President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to its website. The grant enables the nonprofit group to better serve veterans and other survivors of traumatic brain injuries. The Salinas-based organization serves residents of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
The core services the organization provides in the program are support groups, information and referrals on housing and legal issues, technological assistance and self advocacy, said Doug Chandler, the traumatic brain injury expansion project manager, on Tuesday.
"[Traumatic brain injury] is deemed the silent epidemic because it often goes undiagnosed," Chandler said.
The condition is often undiagnosed, he said, because of the similarities in symptoms as post-traumatic stress disorder. Chandler said symptoms of the condition include memory loss, impaired thought processes, and vision and hearing problems.
There are nearly a quarter of a million survivors of the condition within the state, he said. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the condition affects 1.7 million people and kills 52,000 people a year.
Traumatic brain injury is defined as an injury from an external blow to the head — from a bike or car accident to violence or a fall. Effects from the injury include anger issues, depression and memory loss.
Chandler said the group serves nine veterans right now through the program, which is one of seven throughout the state. The organization is trying to expand its services to veterans, he said. As part of its expansion efforts, Chandler said, an advisory committee of eight veterans with TBI was created to raise awareness and further education efforts. He said the program is also working on providing employment services for those with TBI as part of a pilot project.
There is a sense of immediacy, Chandler said, as the VA deals with a large number of returning veterans.
Officials said traumatic brain injury is becoming the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Government reports find that 65 percent of these veterans treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington D.C. were diagnosed with the injury.
Because of her injury, OBrien said, she now stutters — more so when she's nervous. Now on medication, she needs alarms to remember to take them. OBrien said she doesn't read as well as she used to and has major difficulties remembering names and directions.
Bound by a wheelchair for fear of falling and injuring her head further, she said she's learning to walk again with the help of a physical therapist.
OBrien said programs like the one CCCIL offers are crucial for veterans or other people with her condition, especially when it concerns raising awareness among their families.
"It's fantastic, but there are a lot of people I've come across who have TBI who don't know where to go," she said, adding that more publicity for these programs is needed.
Retired U.S. Army staff Sgt. Victor Estrada, 25, of Salinas, is also a survivor.
On Sept. 25, 2005, Estrada said, he was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Iraq. The roadside bomb took out half of his skull, he said, leading to a craniotomy. Estrada said the injury put him in a coma for a month, during which he suffered a stroke. When he woke up, he said, he found out he was paralyzed on his left side.
Estrada said he was in the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division — the "Big Red One" — and came out of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Before Iraq, he said, he served a tour in Afghanistan. For his efforts, Estrada said, he was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star Medal of Valor.
For the past two years, he said, he has been going to the VA in Palo Alto regularly for therapy. Estrada said his left leg is about 90 percent healed and he can walk again. As a patient within the program, he said, his daily routine includes going through recreational and physical therapy, and attending support and cognitive training groups.
While it took him a while to seek help, Estrada encourages returning veterans to get assistance as soon as possible whether it is through support groups or therapy.
"They help you not just cope, but they teach you ways to deal with it to carry on with your life," he said.
