Brain Injury, PTSD All Too Common

The explosive blast that forever changed Vanessa Molinas life struck on a desolate road in Iraq in 2006 as she drove a gun truck guarding a supply convoy.

Molina, 30, described the roadside bomb blast as a big, bright orange light that just lasted forever.

The force knocked her 2 1/2-ton truck off the road, tore away the drivers-side door and cracked Molinas protective eyewear.

The blast was horrible, she recalled. Thats what scares me, the force of that device that much power.

A U.S. Army Reserve staff sergeant with the 281st Transportation Company based in Las Cruces, Molina struggles with depression and memory problems that she now recognizes as symptoms of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Molina is one of 2,461 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars treated for PTSD at the New Mexico VA Health Care System between Oct. 1, 2001, and June 30, 2012, according to a report issued last month by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The report found that nearly 30 percent of the 834,463 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars treated at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide have been diagnosed with PTSD.

Immediately after the bomb attack, a commander asked Molina and two other occupants of her gun truck if they needed time to recover.

All three refused. Molinas passenger suffered a shrapnel wound to her neck, but none suffered life-threatening injuries. Molina doesnt know if she lost consciousness during the attack, but she said the explosion left her with a traumatic brain injury.

TBI is caused by a blow or jolt to the head that causes the brain to strike the inside of the skull and can change the way the brain functions normally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Brain Injury, PTSD All Too Common