A friend’s son was involved in an incident that killed six servicemen in an attack by a motorcycle detonated by a suicide driver. He was very close to the blast, but apparently unscathed. Upon return to the FOB, the initial treatment was a shower, hot meal and a full night’s sleep. But, it a few days he was showing signs of traumatic brain injury (TBI). As the article points out, TBI is not well understood and CTE probably even less so, especially with blast injuries.
In my day, if you had all of your appendages and no visible holes, you were called lucky and you drove on. That’s what happened with me and in my case, I had no long term consequences (as far as I know). But, in this case, there are consequences and they show up in cognitive tests. The problem is that very few doctors understand this and even the most knowledgeable are just starting to learn what is going on. Soldiers are sent to the shrink who are completely clueless about physical injuries. The bottom line is that medical science doesn’t really what to do about this.
Meanwhile, this troop was medevaced back to the States and is back on the job. He is improving, but that’s probably a function of time rather than medical care. Hopefully, time will allow the brain to heal itself, but if the problem is CTE and not TBI, that may not happen. Someone once told me that Hope is not a method.
Was just reading a neuroscience article where the researchers found evidence of the brain trying to heal itself of schizophrenia. The brain has a high level of “plasticity” but knowing how and when is what is needed. Neuroscience is growing in leaps and bounds.
Prayers up for your friends son. Sometimes the brain can repair itself.