Soldiers Get Crash Course in Dealing With Traumatic Brain Injury

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Giving soldiers the best chance of survival and a future after their service is the Army's goal with a program focusing on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Leading neurological experts visited Fort Leonard Wood Thursday to teach those soldiers and their commanders about traumatic brain injuries; how to spot them, and when and where to seek treatment.

Those experts say quickly acknowledging the possibility of a traumatic brain injury and getting a screening can change lives. It can mean the difference between a recovery and making matters worse.

Many soldiers and every day people receive blows much less severe than the story you are about to read but put them selves in danger by doing nothing.

"In October 2006 I was a platoon leader in Iraq with the 5th Engineer Battalion while on patrol looking for IEDs, says Cpt. Joe Bogart. One detonated within five meters of my vehicle."

Bogart survived the blast of that improvised explosive device, but not without lasting wounds.

"Shrapnel took my right eye, he says. I had a bunch of fractures in my forehead, my nose, my cheeks, blunt trauma to my left eye, which, as an end result, I was left legally blind."

Bogart was treated at Walter Reed Hospital, but the injury to his eyes made it difficult for doctors to determine what happened to Bogart's brain.

"At that point, the world was still almost entirely dark, says Bogart. Obviously I received a concussion because I did not remember the events."

It was Bogart's wife who noticed her soldier wasn't the same; dizziness, moodiness, operating in a state of constant frustration.

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Soldiers Get Crash Course in Dealing With Traumatic Brain Injury