COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: Casualties
Another Grim Milestone: 500 Amputees
MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, Time
Jan. 18, 2007
The giant transport planes unload their sad cargo at Andrews AirForce Base near Washington, the first stop home for the most
seriously injured Americans of the Iraq war. Arriving virtually every
Tuesday, Friday and Sunday nights for the past four years, the parade
of wounded warriors may be one of the most predictable events in an
otherwise unruly conflict.
Last Tuesday marked another grim milestone: the arrival of the 500th
amputee. Army officials said the victim, a 24-year-old corporal, lost
both legs in a roadside bomb explosion on January 12. He was treated
at the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, before landing at
Andrews and being taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The corporal became the newest resident of Ward 57, the hospital's
renowned amputee center that has swelled with casualties since 2003.
Limb-loss has occurred twice as often in Iraq as in any conflict of
the past century, except for Vietnam, for which there are no good
statistics. The 500 major amputations — toes and fingers aren't
counted — represent 2.2% of the 22,700 U.S. troops wounded in action.
But the number rises to 5% in the category of soldiers whose wounds
prevent them returning to duty.
Despite the devastating loss, amputation is actually a blessing for
many Ward 57 patients. That's because they wouldn't have survived in
past wars without today's body armor to protect vital organs and
better-equipped medics to quickly stop hemorrhaging and deliver the
wounded to hospitals. The extraordinary rates of survival in this
war — 9 of every 10 soldiers wounded make it, compared to 7.5 of 10
in Vietnam — explains the larger number of casualties who survive
with severe and lasting disabilities, including loss of limbs.
The roadside bomb that wounded the 500th amputee is the signature
weapon of the Iraq war, racking up the kind of body count caused by
heavy artillery in past conflicts. Usually hidden in the road and
detonated by remote control, these so-called improvised explosive
devices release powerful blasts and shrapnel as Humvees pass by,
carrying soldiers well-protected in all but their dangling
limbs. "What takes the brunt of it are the arms and legs," said John
Greenwood, historian of the Army Surgeon General's office.
As the U.S. military has upgraded the armor of its Humvees, the
annual number of amputees has decreased since a record high of 156 in
2004. But Iraqi insurgents have responded with bigger bombs that
cause greater devastation. Experts say this has contributed to the
increase in multiple amputees. Last year, nearly a quarter of the 128
amputees lost more than one limb, compared with about 13% in the
first full year of the conflict.
This war will produce the first generation of veterans in bionic arms
and legs, a legacy that may seem most pronounced for upper extremity
amputees. It is relatively rare to see Americans missing hands or
arms; they represent only 5% of civilian amputees in the U.S. But
nearly a quarter of those who lost limbs in Iraq have come home in
that condition.
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