Foundation aims to help vets with invisible injuries

By Misti Crane

The Columbus Dispatch Saturday August 25, 2012 6:24 AM

The injuries are invisible, complicated to treat and common among those returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Traumatic brain injury was diagnosed in more than 178,000 service members between 2000 and 2010, and some estimates say the actual toll could be as high as 400,000.

A new, Ohio-based nonprofit foundation called Resurrecting Lives is working to encourage better treatment and research and to provide help for returning troops with brain injuries who are trying to return to civilian life.

Today, theyll partner with Central Ohio American Charities to raise money at a trapshoot at Black Wing Shooting Center, 3722 Rt. 36 in Delaware. Those who wish to shoot will pay $200. Others are encouraged to attend and donate whatever theyd like, said Michele Gire, outreach coordinator with the charity group and mother of two sons who suffered brain injuries while serving in the Marine Corps.

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3p.m. Several veterans will attend, including Gires 25-year-old son, Mason Blankenship of Akron.

Blankenship was injured in 2008 while serving in Afghanistan. A mortar hit the truck he was traveling in, and he was knocked out.

I thought I was fine, Blankenship said. Not long after his return, the symptoms of brain injury and of post-traumatic stress disorder emerged.

You cant really tell by looking at them that theres something wrong, Gire said. The problem is that their life slowly unravels, and they just cant pick up the pieces.

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Foundation aims to help vets with invisible injuries