Brain injury is real through eyes of 4 GIs

A soldier returns from Iraq and has trouble remembering how to complete everyday tasks.

He gets frustrated easily and has trouble sleeping. Doctors have difficulty alleviating his symptoms or even diagnosing the cause.

Along Recovery, a documentary showing today at the Santikos Palladium as part of the San Antonio Film Festival, follows four members of the U.S. Army as they are treated for traumatic brain injury.

The four men sustained injuries from improvised explosive devices while in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pressure from the blasts might leave no physical damage but cause symptoms that resemble a severe concussion, including memory loss and headaches. Traumatic brain injury is often paired with post-traumatic stress, which means additional mental health treatment for soldiers.

I wanted to give the injury a human face, director Justin Springer said.

The film was shot at Brooke Army Medical Center (now San Antonio Military Medical Center), a facility renowned for its treatment of TBI. Springer, who served in the Army from 2003 until 2008, gained intimate access to sessions with neurologists and psychiatrists.

I knew what combat was like, but a soldier has no clue what's going on in a hospital, he said.

For almost two years, Springer filmed his subjects during recovery. One struggles to repeat short lists of words back to hospital staff. Another watches a video of his vehicle being destroyed by an IED. A third recounts some of the memories that haunt his nightmares and keep him from sleeping.

Springer witnessed these injuries firsthand during his two tours in Iraq. After an IED blast, soldiers in his unit would start to exhibitsymptoms without admitting they needed treatment.

The Army is such a tough-guy world, he said. Men don't like to see doctors.

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Brain injury is real through eyes of 4 GIs