Free treatment offered for vets with brain injuries

Meg Farris / Eyewitness News Email: mfarris@wwltv.com | Twitter: @megfarriswwl

NEWORLEANS-- More and more veterans are coming home with brain injuries and PTSD and are searching the Internet for treatment.

Many find themselves coming to the New Orleans area because a local doctor is offering their only hope.

Now 50 people will get free treatment as part of study funded by Congress.

A four-legged Marine received the Purple Heart. 'Shandi' saved lives and limbs finding IED's while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now she is retired, suffering the mental consequences of experiencing war.

"You can see her physical reactions to doors slamming and loud noises. It's completely uncontrollable, shaking and anxiety that she gets from it," said her handler Marine Gunnery Sergeant Chuck Rotenberry.

He is experiencing the same symptoms. They started when an IED exploded near him.

"The first couple of weeks I spent kind of in a fog, and I didn't realize, until I got over the initial stress or the initial symptoms, I realized how bad I felt," he said.

Chuck suffered a traumatic brain injury, called a TBI, when his brain was damaged from the inside, crashing into his skull from the force.

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Free treatment offered for vets with brain injuries